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.

Coeur De Pirate (Harbourfront, June 24, 2011)

In the distance a roar subsided into Ensemble. As we wound our way up the aisle of the full (but not BSS full) Harbourfront stage, Beatrice was front and centre at her keyboard. With confidence she led us through a bubbly set that intermingled songs from her lovely self-titled debut with those from her forthcoming September release. Her four piece all-male band are no slouches either, swapping synths for violins, acoustic for electric, bass for cello, and drums for xylo, respectively. (Guess I haven't got a shot of infiltrating the talented band to spend long hours with the endlessly endearing leading lady.) 


Beatrice addressed the audience primarily in French, as this was the FrancoFete, but did so with charm and a smile that tided us anglophones over. Besides the music spoke for itself, especially the slightly darker Fondu au Noir, which did away with the drums and showcased the violin and her splendid voice. There were lighter moments as well such as the new Danse et Danse that saw Coeur de Pirate on her feet for a predictably dancey number. Ava, another new song was on the lighter side too and hit the mark, as did the uke on Printemps.

Despite her mining for cover ideas on Twitter, she did not include any, barring a song with the music written by Jay Malinowski, her partner in Armistice.  From this project she played half a song of on this night, solo, in encore. In closing was the song that had been noticeably missing from the set and as her bandmates resumed their positions we were asked to sing along to Commes Des Enfants. We did and continued to cheer as they lined up to take their bow.