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

Saturday, February 20th was “Alt Country Rock’N'Roll” night at The Horseshoe and on the bill were four local indie acts: Golden Hands Before God, The Diableros, The Schomber Fair and La Casa Muerte. We missed out on watching openers Golden Hands Before God (sorry fans!) but having previously  heard great things about The Diableros, we decided to venture out early to see if we could catch their set. Having only briefly listened to a few of their tunes on their MySpace page prior to the show, we actually arrived at The Horseshoe somewhat excited to see the live version. We got there just in time to witness five guys on stage setting up their instruments. After grabbing a beer or two, they finally began to play and play they did, but with absolutely NO enthusiasm. They each knew their individual parts well; strumming the guitar and hitting notes on the keys, however this was done with no passion or what appaeared to be any pleasure. Not one of them even cracked a smile during their entire forty five minute performance.

We didn’t get a chance to grab their set list, so it is hard to comment on individual songs, but honestly that didn’t even matter as watching them was THAT painful. The crowd seemed to mimic our sentiments as a few swayed trans-like to the beat of the song and the rest resorted to the bar. A few drinks were what you seemed to need to get through this performance. All wasn’t lost though, the drummer was actually great and eventually started to pull the attention away from the rest of the band.  He was hitting those drums with such enthusiasm and gusto as if he also knew how boring upfront was and therefore tried to make up for it! My verdict? Buy the album, avoid the show.

Next on the bill were bluegrass alt rockers The Schomberg Fair. We were pretty excited for them to take to the stage and relieve us from the comma we were in and they didn’t disappoint. They came on stage and literally rocked the house opening their set with “Angels Wings”; a fast paced song that appears on their latest album Gospel. This song literally begins and ends with a bang with lead vocalist Matt showing off his banjo skills. These guys just really know how to put on a show, and with tons of experience and tours under their belt, it really becomes a treat for those able to catch them live. One thing that really struck me was the contrast between lead vocalist’s Matt and bassist Nathan’s voices. Nathan, or Nate rather, has a voice that literally sounds like the instrument that he plays and when they sang in unison it actually created the most amazing sound that is uniquely their own. From beginning to end the crowd were either singing along or dancing- two key reactions that any musician would hope for.  My verdict? Buy the album AND see the show!

The Schomberg Fair play CMW on March 13th @ Sneaky Dee’s.

photography provided by Nancy Kim.

Canadians are talented people. Yes, I may be somewhat bias saying this, however having travelled quite extensively in my lifetime I can assure you that we aren’t the only people that think this. Ask anyone in the world and they will tell you that we excel in many areas (citing hockey legend Wayne Gretzky as a notable figure). One area that I believe we are particularly adept to “excelling” in is in the music department. Oftentimes it is the heavy hitters such as Celine Dion that have music fans from around the world stirring, however there is another group that appear to be creating quite a buzz south of the boarder recently. Great Lake Swimmers are not a new band, but it is their fourth album, Lost Channels, that have garnered them the most attention on the international circuit. Having recently returned from a plethora of tour dates around the world, the boys are finally coming home to bring the tunes back to (eager) Canadian ears! In anticipation of their sold out show this Saturday at Trinity St.Paul’s Church, iheartthemusic caught up with Tony Dekker and Erik Arnesen of Great Lake Swimmers where they shared with us just a little bit of the inspiration behind their Polaris Music Prize nominated album Lost Channels.

iheartthemusic: You guys recorded this album in a rather unique setting. Can you explain what that was like?

Tony: We recorded on location, most of it in the Thousand Islands where we were able to really get into some unique spaces. There was a castle just over the border on the American side called “Singer Castle” which sits on Dark Island; which is the kind of thing that sounds like it could be fiction but its not, it is real. There was a number of other locations too like a church and a place in Brockville, Ontario called The Brockville Arts Centre which is a theatre that has been maintained by the community for over a hundred years and been beautifully restored.

iheartthemusic: That’s amazing! How did you hear about this place?

Tony: The offer came in from a friend of ours who is sort of a story collector and a photographer in the region. He was the one that invited us to come and check it out. When it came time to record the album, I brainstormed to try and find different locations that would be suitable for us to record and that place just seemed perfect. It [location] has become a really big part of the creative process for us I think. I mean, to be in these places that are charged with the kind of energy that draws your best possible performance, it is really important for us. This one [Thousand Islands] in particular was special because to be in that area and be really inspired meant digging deep-creatively.

Erik: Part of the adventure is getting there too, and figuring out how to work in the space.

iheartthemusic: Were there any sounds that were incorporated into the album that came from your surroundings?

Tony: No, we don’t have any bizarre noises on the album. We are pretty straight up.

Erik: We recorded the bells in the castle.

Tony: That’s true.

Erik: That was kind of just a happy accident. Those bells almost interrupted our recording process and then we decided on our last day to document them and then use it in the record.

If you weren’t lucky enough to get your tickets to this one, don’t worry the boys will be back and hopefully with a new album in hand!

photography provided by Sara Collaton

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