Friday, May 02, 2008

Friday Grab Bag - Summer In the City


There's a whole ton going on in Toronto right now on the topic of great live music. I've personally been out to shows every night for what seems like a decade (more like a week), and there's absolutely no signs of slowing down in the near future, thanks to the work of the Over the Top Festival (OTTF) and others.

A quick rundown of what's been seen and heard by yours truly in the not-too-distant past.

Will Currie & The Country French (CD Release) @ Sneaky Dee's, April 29th - This group of young music students demonstrated through finely crafted orchestral piano pop exactly what all the fuss is about. Will Currie writes some infectious pop melodies, like a teenaged Ben Folds, and murderecords should feel very lucky to have them on board.

the Constantines w/ Attack in Black @ Starlight (Waterloo), April 30th - The Cons can rock a small room like no other band I'm aware of. As such, I consciously opted out of the Toronto show at the much-larger Phoenix concert hall in favour of the Starlight show the night before. And I'm certainly glad I did. Attack in Black held it down quite respectably as the openers, as well.

the Teenagers @ Lee's Palace, May 1st - The potty-mouthed boys (and now girl?) brought their Franco-swagger to town for the second time in not too long, much to the approval of the slow-on-the-trigger hipsters who missed them the first time around at the sold out show at the Great Hall. Much of the same as the first time, and further reinforced their luke-warm live reputation.

Woodhands @ Sneaky Dee's, May 1st (OTTF) - a review, in haiku:

dance dance dance dance dance
dance dance dance dance dance dance dance
dance mother effer.

Where I'll be for the next few:

the Wooden Sky @ St Stephen's-in-the-field Church, May 2nd (OTTF)
Foals w/ Sebastien Grainger @ Lee's Palace, May 2nd
Ruby Coast w/ others@ Whippersnapper Gallery, May 3rd (OTTF - Pop Montreal! showcase)
Kevin Barnes (of Of Montreal) @ Mod Club, May 4th (OTTF)

Will Currie & The Country French - Centrefold
the Constantines - Trans Canada
the Teenagers - Love No
Woodhands - I Wasn't Made For Fighting
the Wooden Sky - When Lost at Sea
Foals - Cassius
Ruby Coast - Brittle Bones
Kevin Barnes - Harvest Moon (Neil Young Cover)

- bbbykmbrly.

4 comments:

Highwaisted said...

did you dig the teenagers show? i thought it blew.

Anonymous said...

yeah. it blew. they blew last time, too.

Anonymous said...

thanks for the woodhands track - excellent stuff.

Anonymous said...

they blew at Reading last year as well. call me a jerk, but i'm not giving them a second chance.