The Burning Hell (Lee's Palace, Apr 26 '12)

Lee's Palace seemed a little more like a cavern for this sparsely attended Thursday night gig. Mathias Kom asked us all to come forward so he could at least see who he was playing to and being the good Burning Hell sports that we are, we obliged. Besides a familiar bassist the backing band has changed significantly since the good ol' Guelph shows, not to say these guys were any slouches. Besides it is Kom's brainchild and he reaches well beyond mediocrity in all aspects. His songwriting is wonderfully literate and it was fun just to listen to the new girls beside me as they heard the jokes (as well as the outrightly heartbreaking lyrics, eg. Remote Control) for the first time. In fact the only new song was a duet with Berlin-based opening lady Freschard. A lovely, simple English song sung through her endearing French accent. Not to say the set was totally a rehash though either nor that she was the only guest. Actually during Flux Capacitor's Nostalgia Matthias called for any sax players in the building to make themselves welcome for this song, without any real expectations. Sure enough following the first verse the man to follow on the bill, Stanley Brinks, strolls out from backstage nonchalantly and joins in without missing a stride. Matthias is so caught off guard by how awesome this is that he momentarily forgets the words to verse two.

It wasn't the most prolific BH set by any stretch but it did make me smile, such as when Matthias introduced Let Things Slip Away by saying 'I was going to call this Losing My Religion but somebody told me that was already taken. By U2.' Who ever said hell couldn't be enjoyable?

Set

Remote Control
Let Things Slip Away
Nostalgia
Kings of the Animal KingdomDuet with Freschard "I liked you from the start"
Everybody Needs a Body (to be somebody)
Old World
The Second Cigarette

Whaletooth @ Humblemania XLI (Ossington Apr. 25,'12)

"Humblemania XLI" yelled the announcer in his booming wrestling voice. Okay that didn't happen, at least not at this, the forty-first incarnation of Humblemania. What did happen is that a plentiful group of Torontonians packed into the warm, brick back room of The Ossington to watch a performance. Whaletooth were the night's entertainment, performing a selection of their own songs, mostly from their forthcoming release, in addition to a couple covers. These were a mid-set rendition of Chad VanGaalen's Willow Tree which was quite sweet with the female vocals, followed immediately by an intentional singalong to The Beatles' With a Little Help From My Friends. The leading lady had as much energy bopping up and down throughout these as she did for their originals. Flanked by three guys on guitar and bass the band was rounded out by a very bearded timekeeper on drums behind her. The final number was catchiest and left a lingering good feeling. (Though that may have been sleepiness too as I was too tired to stay for the music video premiere.)

CMW 2011: Russian Futurists (Bait Shop, Mar 12, 2011)

Unrelenting pop with opener Hoeing Weeds, Sowing Seeds. The Russian Futurists also did Let's Get Ready to Crumble and a new song Golden Years. One Night, One Kiss was a duet with an obviously new, or perhaps just forgetful, female vocalist who required crib note lyrics throughout. Introduced as an urban song ("Ever heard of rap?" challenged the ginger Matthew Adam Hart) he hardly strayed from the vibe that had already been set when playing Precious Metals. 2 Dots on a Map was 'a sensitive song for the girlfriends in the house' while "hit" Paul Simon was dedicated to the Russian Futurist Bald Spot Viewing platform, aka the upstairs viewers at the Bait Shop "because we're old". Even if the live show isn't astounding at least he's got a sense of humour to go along with the perky prerecorded pop!

Gramercy Riffs (Parts & Labour, Jan 29, '12)

As soon as I spotted the lead singer the memories came flooding back. I had seen Gramercy Riffs before (opening for Hey Rosetta) and I'd been underwhelmed by that performance. Ah well, here I was only minutes from home, checking out Parts and Labour as I'd been trying to for over a year now, plus it was for a good cause and they were already on stage. Stage may be a strong word as they were really just at the end of the P&L basement venue rocking without monitors. This meant the sound was slightly off at times but not a problem overall. The five piece carried on with the lone female handling most of the singing duties though one of her guitarists also tried his hand on a couple. The song before Dreaming caught my ear, then the one song I actually know was a slightly lighter sound for the set but set up an enjoyable latter half to the set. Presumably much of the Sunday night crowd had dispersed by this point, having seen some ten-year-olds from Girls Rock Camp perform earlier, and supported that cause for which this was a fundraiser. The epic levels portrayed in most of the awesome pictures adorning the walls of the place weren't quite reached but the Riffs closed it out fine.