Born Ruffians - Harbourfront Centre (Jul 13/13)

It seemed a quiet night down at the waterfront for the local Born Ruffian show but the hardcore fan group at the front were determined to change that. Their enthusiasm had more and more people in the audience getting into the perky, indie rock band who were putting on quite a performance feeding off this energy. The set list was a great taster of the BR catalogue as they played plenty of throwbacks to earlier days, a highlight being Hedonistic Me, while also incorporating some strong and more recent releases. Not sure that it was going to be anything worth writing about I was soon swept into the set that just kept giving. Nearing the end Luke and Mitch revealed that their long-time drummer Steve would be departing, and not wanting to make a big deal of it this would, in fact, be his last show. This drew some groans and cheers from the crowd but it also drew a semi-streaker who was barely clothed and really broke up any sentimentality that was brewing by jumping on stage in his underwear. Unfortunately since this was a free Harbourfront show there was little security and this continued into the ensuing tune to the point where they had to stop the song in the middle. Once the yahoos were cleared off the stage the show went on and they closed out. The hardcore group cheered loudly and there was no question there would be an encore. Hummingbird led it and was fantastic as usual. In the end they kept bringing their final song down and then revving it back up again to the delight of everyone. A solid Toronto showing and a revival in the faith of a Born Ruffian show.