I Heart the Music: Your Online Source for Live Music Reviews and Interviews in Toronto!

Thursday night was supposed to look like this: head to The Great Hall, chat with the nice people at the door and listen to the sweet sounds of Sally Seltman, Dan Mangan and Timber Timbre. In reality, however, it looked more like this: arrive at The Great Hall well in advance, chat with the door people who inform us that their media list is full and our passes mean nothing, take a look inside the venue and realize how empty it is, see the angry faces outside and realize that it won’t be happening for us that night. Despite being extremely disappointed and VERY surprised at the lack of noteriety our “media” passes gave us (not the first or last time this would happen), we decided to head elsewhere and landed at the Rivoli.

We arrived at the Rivoli only to be pleasantly surprised by what we heard. Halfway through her set was Calgary singer-songstress Jodi King. King is one of those artists that you truly appreciate when you see them live. Taking inspiration from her real life heartbreaks and experiences, King sang with her whole heart alternating between the piano and tambourine while at the same time maintaining her flawless look. Jodi not only commanded the attention of the audience and hit every note perfectly, she was able to hold my attention throughout her ENTIRE set (which rarely happens). It was one of the tightest performances I have seen live in quite a while which, ironically enough, ended up being the theme of the night. Taking inspiration from singers before her, she brought something wholesome and unique to the stage and I can only hope that I will be able to see her play at a larger venue in the near future!

Next up was Windsor band Michou. I have been waiting to see them play for quite some time and with a whole merch table dedicated to their moto itsnicetomichou, what you see is what you get from these “nice” guys. They came onstage and went straight into it with an incredible instrumental introduction. When they hit their second song “Eavesdropping”, Sasha Appler on the keys jumped to the forefront to perform several pushups mid-song and then returned to blow on the trumpet. A great beginning to say the least and a nice addition to yet another incredibly tight band. Everything appeared to be on point for these guys; from the soft vocals of Mike Hargreaves, to the banging of Stefan Cvetkovic on the drums, everyone played their parts perfectly. I have to say, I bought their latest album Cardona prior to the show and rarely listened to it. They play a style of music that is best listened to during the summer at the cottage, but after watching their performance, it is their live show that really showcases their diversity. They were comfortable, mature and just really, really nice! By the time they made it to “Imperfect” I was sold and have since brought their album out of retirement on my iPod.

The final act that we caught that night was probably the most mature or “seasoned” of them all. Saint Alvia is a band that recieved HUGE press after the release of their last album Between the Lines and then they just kind of disappeared. So, as you can imagine, I was surprised to see that they were playing CMF this year. The band performed songs from both their latest album and earlier work such as personal favourite “Blonde Kryptonite” without a hitch. My only criticism was the venue. The Rivoli is a great venue for indie bands, however it is not so great for bands that really command (and deserve) a larger one and Saint Alvia is one such band. With each member of the band contributing to the vocals and no real frontman, a small stage just doesn’t appear to cut it. Although the size of the stage was a factor, these guys are professionals and played as if they were performing to a crowd of thousands. 

photography provided by Samantha Clarke

We here at iheartthemusic like to think that we aren’t bias when it comes to posts. Well we THOUGHT we weren’t bias but that however changed as we realized we have covered Toronto based band Rebel Emergency THREE times already! So what’s one more time, right? Just in time for the holidays Live Nation presents the Rock Your Stocking Christmas Bash featuring Rebel Emergency with special guests Street Pharmacy, Dodger, Walk Off The Earth and Ko Kapches. This festive bash will take place on Wednesday, December 23rd at the Sound Academy. This is an all ages event so be sure to show up early! Tickets are $15 and are available at ticketmaster,  Rotate This and Soundscapes in Toronto.

Check out the facebook event page

Also, check out our chat with the boys from Rebel Emergency here.

Happy holidays and see ya there!!

xo iheartthemusic team

Rebel Emergency are a dynamic Toronto based rock, reggae band that iheartthemusic have had the honour AND pleasure of covering twice already. For a music website that has only been around for a couple of months, this may seem a tad bit much, however, we seriously cannot get enough of these boys. When we heard that they were hosting their debut album release on Thursday, August 27th at The Mod Club, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see these boys put on another stellar performance.

We arrived at The Mod Club to an overwhelmingly packed house of fans, family and friends (we aren’t really sure which category we fell into-perhaps all three) that were all waiting anxiously for the boys to hit the stage. Unfortunately we did not arrive in time to catch the opening acts (Dane Hartsell, Street Pharmacy and King Sunshine), however we heard great things from fellow concertgoers!

When the boys did take to the stage, the entire venue erupted in chants and cheers and you knew this was going to be a performance to remember! The show was in support of their album release of Love Ain’t Free; a continuation of the reggae vibe off of their previous EP. With this album they travelled all the way to New York to record with legendary (and Grammy Award winning) producer/engineer Commissioner Gordon and spent six months back and forth from Toronto to New York to produce an epic piece of music for your listening pleasure; something that you will surely want to have in your collection! The crowd in attendance were definitely there to party and so were the boys on stage! Their energy and passion spread through the crowd like wildfire and by the end of their set everyone was either singing or dancing along to Roddy’s eclectic mix of rock, reggae and ska stylings. A highlight of the night was seeing them come back onstage for a special encore of their single “Wander Far Away” which was played up with Roddy’s signature move of surfing the crowd. As we have said before and will say again, if you haven’t seen Rebel Emergency perform live, please let our THIRD review of them be the push you need to check them out!

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