Reuben and the Dark - TIFF (Sep 5)

Oddly the security wouldn't let us off the street and into the parking lot while they sound checked for a half hour after they should have been playing. Finally the couple dozen of us entered and as they began playing more were drawn in from the TIFF walking street. The band sounded good, booming their drums with cotton ball tipped sticks, under their conventional indie band instruments. Reuben strummed an acoustic guitar for much of the set but also utilized his strong voice without instrumentation in more than a few cases. They were all mic'ed, including the lone female who also played guitar. Nearing the end of the short set they broke out a couple of the more bombastic tracks and really got things going, swapping in a banjo on Rolling Stone but unfortunately, as they were already running behind, this set that the band came from Calgary to play was limited to well under a half hour.