Rural Alberta Advantage (Fort York, July 14/12)

It's a funny concept celebrating a war two hundred years later - especially with a concert. Yet a free Rural Alberta Advantage show at Fort York, regardless of the reason, is something to attend. I was slightly peeved having left the cool comfort of my house during a heatwave in Toronto to arrive precisely on time but find the previous act (Alex Cuba) still with plenty of set left. Eventually Nils, Amy and Paul took to the stage to bang out tunes from their two full lengths. Bang them out they do as Paul is always so energetic when attacking his set and Nils is known to let loose on his acoustic. Muscle Relaxants from the latest release was a standout from the first half of what would turn out to be well over an hour, uncommon for a summer fest. Post Nils' solo rendition of The Littlest Hobo theme song, which I don't know or get, they hit their stride when the full band returned. North Star sounded great and personal fave Barnes Yard rocked. They closed with a Gord Downie solo number (Canada Geese) that ran right into Stamp. Despite the seemingly barren grounds (large space made the people there seem relatively few) there was a strong call for an encore that had host Tom Power scratching his head and looking around to see if they'd do it. After some confusion it seemed they would. That is until the sound guy threw a hissy fit and stormed away, stranding the band and the host. Nils graciously thanked the crowd and promised to play for us, their hometown fans, again real soon.

Polaris 2012 - Short List Reaction

I would replace Feist (yawn) and Cadence (somewhat awkward flow) with Patrick Watson and Rich Aucoin - both of which are exceptionally full albums, the former being beautiful and lush, the latter being energetic and fun.

I haven't spent enough time with Yamantaka // Sonic Titan to knock it but I did think Dan Mangan's ambitious effort was deserving.

Didn't pick it - but I can totally get behind Drizzy.

Cadence Weapon Hope in Dirt City
Cold Specks I Predict A Graceful Expulsion
Drake Take Care
Kathleen Edwards Voyageur
Feist Metals
F__cked Up David Comes to Life
Grimes Visions
Handsome Furs Sound Kapital
Japandroids Celebration Rock
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan YT//ST

My reaction to the long list was here.

Five Alarm Funk (Rivoli, July 5/12)

Besides doing some homework on the day of the show by listening to their online offerings I was not familiar with Five Alarm Funk. That took nothing away from this highly entertaining and engaging set of funk music at the Rivoli. All nine members brought it to the stage, although many did not bring their shirts (while others lost them along the way).

The band centered around the drum kit that was center stage and occupied by the most cheerfully silly man in the world. Surrounding him were a bongo player, two guitars, bass, an equally charismatic keyboard player and the brass section - sax, trombone, trumpet. As they played full fun funk music they added even more with choreographed moves ranging from as little as synchronized swaying to dipping and ducking and all sorts of things. It may sound cheesy but in the show it just added to the let-loose feel of the night. They even took it steps beyond with skits as song introductions, such as mocking music critics. becoming Latin zombies, and an inexplicable gorilla costume that equally inexplicably had the chest cut out. This is likely a terrible explanation of the performance to anyone who hasn't seen it before yet the show itself actually included all of this. And it worked.

Elwins, Dwayne Gretzky (Lee's Palace July 6/12)

The Elwins secured the opening slot for the evening. They played a pretty standard set of music from their initial LP And I Thank You. Tyler, primary Dwayne Gretzky singer, has been playing with them for the past few shows (though not at Zeus) and filled in fine starting on guitar and swapping to bass when Feurd was needed for keys and the like. They did their semi-famous Beyonce cover, Countdown,  and it was the first time I'd seen it live (not overly impressive - granted I've never heard the original and it was sans Luke Lalonde). Actually I've heard so much positive about The Elwins and their work ethic but this set didn't super impress. Maybe I was just disappointed and confused that they didn't do the Fox song and dance (see the Zeus link above).


Dwayne Gretzky did what they do best - playing amazing throwback cover tunes that are not necessarily spot-on but pretty darn close and fun regardless. Dan Griffin (ex?-)Arkell joined them for much of the set and Feurd, from the Elwins, was unmistakable on stage much of the time as well. In addition to their classic set list of Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, The Beatles and Jackson 5 they also added some Queen (Under Pressure), Elton John (Bennie & the Jets) and a surprise, yet personal fave, Cardigans (Love Fool). Plus 80's blast Take on Me and Allie Hughes did a fine representation on Heart's Barracuda. Fun fun!

Sunparlour Players (Yonge/Dundas, July 6/12)

Sure it was only a week since the last Sunparlour Players show but with this band that's no reason not to check em out again. Set-wise it was rather similar but being in the open-air of Yonge/Dundas Square made a difference. Again it was a duo (Penner and Rosie) and they seemed to only have a handful of previous fans in attendance but still a decent crowd as passerbyers were drawn in. Without the intimate confines of a club there was some distance but they tried to bridge the gap with some banter and invitations to try their preserves (yet another pitch in the middle of the ad-centric square). Definitely not the response of previous shows however good exposure for the band and still enjoyable. The first half closed out with my personal favourite If the Creeks Don't Rise and it was some consolation that I was able to hear that even though I couldn't stick around for their second set.

Sunparlour Players, The Heartbroken (Horseshoe June 28/12)

Sunparlour Players

I'd heard rumours that the brilliant trio was now a duo but now I've seen it to believe it. The reasons remain unexplained and although the third member was in attendance I thought better of pestering him. Besides the two remaining members managed to take on the extra responsibility and roll with it. As if he didn't already have enough to do the drummer drummed, played the xylophone And played the bass with one hand simultaneously, plucking the strings slightly as he changed chords. Flipping incredible.
Amid SPP favourites like Runner, Battle of '77, Creeks and For My Lord they live sampled "I put a spell on you" and This Little Light. O Captain featured dual drums whereas John Had a Bell was blisteringly fast with the metal finger guitar slide. Solid new song Green Thumb closed out but they were back after a short but enthusiastic ovation from the sparse Horseshoe Thursday night crowd. Even after Red, Blood Red of Home the drunk lady still clambered on stage to demand another song into the already-off mic. Although it's great to see all three members play like I'm used to, it wasn't terribly detrimental to just have two. I may still see them again this week.

The Heartbroken
The focal point was the female lead singer with her extremely powerful voice that came on awfully strong. With a name like The Heartbroken it wasn't all that surprising to hear the hint of country that sometimes crept through. The drummer lent backing vocals effectively and even trashed his set by playing a song completely with his hands that knocked over a drum. On the same song the guitarist switched over to slide and it made for a great tune. Closing number saw them rocking out on all fronts and not simply for their middle age. Not exactly my thing but a very respectable showing.

Kids & Explosions (Humblemania45, Ossington June 27/12)

Curiously the previous DJs had been running a bunch of songs utilized on the Girl Talk discs and then without any introduction Josh took over. In fact I'm not 100% sure when it occurred but I did take notice when G'n'R's November Rain started to run into a recognizable Kids & Explosions beat ("girl, shit, money, shit"). Sure enough there was the unassuming artist himself behind his unmissable Shit Computer (it says "SHIT" right on the laptop lid boldly in black tape). In addition to the laptop the only other equipment he used was a keyboard. This must have been programmed to somehow be in sync with the set as the keys seemed to take on aspects of the current samples. Much of the set culled from his one and only disc, although there were deviations, both in the cuts of the samples and even in more obvious cases where new songs were utilized. In fact a couple of these were Kanye samples as "can we get much higher" ran over an Arcade Fire track, and later Nicki Minaj's dirty verse from Power was cut up too. He even tossed some Stairway to Heaven in for good measure. Unfortunately there wasn't much recognition for the set although I suppose working from a nearly empty dance floor early in the set to a packed one by the end is recognition enough!