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

iheartthemusic went to check out our old friends from The Johnstones when they played at the  El Mocambo during Canadian Music Week. These boys are known for their crazy onstage performances that often include some kind of costume and tons of energy. Although they often don’t disappoint,  this time it was the crowd that did. With so many shows going on that night, these boys appeared to be left in the dark. Nonetheless, they proved that you can always bring the party to the stage. At one point during their performance drummer Ryan Long was smashing away at his drum kit while simultaneously standing on top of it. If that were not enough, trombone player Julian Warme and trumpet player Renee Gillezeau decided to venture out into the crowd to play amongst those in attendance. One thing is for sure, you can always count on The Johnstones to get the crowd involved no matter how big (or small) it is.  Check out some of our live shots from the show:

If you are fans of The Johnstones then be sure to hit up Bovine Sex Club on Friday (March 27th) for Mean Tangerine’s CD release party where Ryan Long and Jarek Hardy will be performing their side project ironically titled Tall Guy Short Guy.

photography provided by Kristin McCormack

Welcome to the daily diary of CMW through the lens and pens of iheartthemusic’s Double-E’s, consisting of myself, E-word (aka Emer), and E-pic (aka Eric). Each day we’ll report on our musical adventures, as will our other iheartthemusic team, Mmmkay, made up of mkay-word (aka Kimberlee) and mkay-pics (aka Matt).

The first night (Wednesday, March 11), began with the horror of seeing snow precipitating from the sky. It was 10 degrees that morning, for crying out loud! Yeesh! So, the snow coupled, with my perpetual tardiness, meant that by the time I met up with E-pic his toes were frozen and he was not in the peachiest of moods. It didn’t help matters that the first venue we ventured to gave us serious ‘tude, claiming that they weren’t accepting any passes (media or otherwise) and that they’d never heard of the band that was about to take the stage. Not the best start to the fest, but no matter, we turned around and strolled over to Rancho Relaxo…

Hearing music emanating from the upper concert area, we decided to take a gander. There we found Lonely China Day all the way from, you guessed it, China. Not being sure what time the showcase was set to begin, it took some debate before we determined that it wasn’t their set and that they were just warming up. Nonetheless, we took a seat and listened to the interesting ambient static and communication chain between band-translator-sound technician.

We ducked out to catch Joshua Radin who was playing across the street at the El Mo. The place was packed! Clearly this dude has a following of female fans who audibly swooned while he chatted before diving into his set (which, he mentioned, is the only acoustic show on his tour). He has a great voice and wonderful mellow sound, however the crowd was far from chill as E-pic soon discovered tempers were ready to boil. E-pic was trying to get up close enough to grab some good shots of Joshua when a hostile man threatened to take a swing at him. E-pic apologized and explained that he only needed to take a few pics and that he’d be out of the way before Joshua even began playing, but this did not deter the mad man who continued his unfounded aggression. I’m sorry, but there is simply no need for that type of hostility! So we decided to skedaddle…

Back at Rancho we caught Lonely China Day and were able to hear the elements we witnessed during sound check pieced together like Tetris. It was cool to hear lyrics sung in Chinese. The sound was soft electro rock, and while E-pic thought he heard some riffs similar to Pearl Jam, E-word argued Collective Soul.

Next up was Revival Dear. Yee-haw! This was pure feel good, foot stompin’ fun! Strong voices (sometimes with a twangy-edge), hootenanny-like harmonica, solid percussion, great guitar and full force energy shot out from the stage. Some of the call-and-answer parts of “Be Back Someday” had a funky Baptist-revival feel. It was a shame they had to cut their set short in order to fit all the acts in. But no matter, they made the most of the time they had and filled the entire Rancho room with their sound!

Last for us were Australia’s Captains. This alternative four-piece band had some retro-like elements reminiscent of the B-52s and even a little like XTC. They sounded fun, but the night was no longer young and with four more days ahead of us we decided to call it a night.

Photography by Eric McBain

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