Groove Is In The Heart

A reasonably full crowd was out at The Baby G on a Thursday night. Opener Slo Pitch Sounds was a turn-tablist who occasionally did scratching, but primarily built luxuriant soundscapes from samples. Now and then he was joined on stage by a pop-and-locker for some choreography.

The feel-good vibe kept going with Isla Craig. It's been a while since I've heard this singer live. Her and her full band continues to refine Craig's combination of slightly 60s hippie lyrics/feel with a pulsing groove. You wouldn't dance to it, but there's a lot of head nods and body sways. I'm still waiting for that album drop she's been promising for quite some time.

The night ended with the warm blanket that is a typical Luka's set. On his 3rd album, this crooner expanded his repertoire of (almost too) earnest love songs. Surprisingly there were 2 numbers where his band, especially drummer Evan Cartwright, let loose with some rocking improv. But for Luka, it was usually about groovy numbers full of harmony and build like Love is The Eternal Weight and My Heart Is Full. These are songs you play to try and win over that special someone.

The Big 4-0

Coinciding with her 40th birthday, singer Genevieve Marentette has commandeered Jazz club The Reservoir Lounge for her 2nd fund-raiser on Sunday night. Once again, an all-female house band, spontaneously named The Health Gap Band, kept things tight and hopping. It was an evening of great discovery for me. Marentette's female friends, professional singers one and all, could blow away all those mopey indie/alternative boys and most of the mainstream pop singers without even trying.

The first set was all originals while the second had jazz and soul standards. There were bluesy grit (Heather Luckhart, Irene Torres), 60s throwback (Tia Brazda, Elise Legrow), pure tones (Jocelyn Barth, Jessica Lalonde), brassy musical theatre (June Garber, Barbara Lee), and soulful R&B (Lydia Persaud, Dione Taylor). With these singers and a whole bunch more, not only were the main vocals wonderful, but the impromptu backup harmonies (with whomever wanted to jump in for a particular song) were sweet and rich. As for the birthday girl, Marentette had quite a set of pipes herself. And probably inherited from her mother, as the older version also came on stage a few times to help out.

Special Alert

On Friday, I went to The Great Hall for a sold-out show. Opener Bernice plays odd lightly improvised folk-pop songs that seems meandering. Tonight the crowd was generous in their appreciation of the singer's vivid imagery. Head-liner The Weather Station was releasing their epynomous album (though not their first) this evening.

Tamara Lindeman has been getting great reviews, and not just for her latest effort, for her dense lyrics and songcraft. The last time she played The Great Hall she had a good crowd. But tonight the audience was early and filled up to the rafters. So obviously she's building a fanbase. But if there were some newbies, her new songs should also win them over. With a harder rocker edge, the band sounded great live. Lindeman even managed some effect-drenched guitar sounds, even if her normal specialty is intricate finger picking. But it was her solo numbers that highlighted her music. The entire venue held its breath as her clean, pure voice soared over delicate chords with sharply observed vignettes. It was a pleasure to listen to such fully conceived songs.

Tell and Penner

Friday night, I headed over to Adelaide Hall to see Fred Penner. Almost exactly 5 years ago, I saw this children's entertainer at The Garrison at one of the best live shows I've been to. Since then, Penner has been playing to grown-ups now and then including at this years Canadian Music Week, but I have been missing out on these shows.

Unfortunately, tonight didn't reach the same heights, but not because of the performer. The promoter scheduled this show in Club Land so there was a much smaller crowd. Those that showed up were drunker and more boorish, though eventually the love for Penner won through. What a shame since tonight Penner had quite a good backing band with a lot of technical chops, even some rocking solos. A good chunk of his set was devoted to his new album Hear The Music. There was also a lot of classics including Sandwiches and The Cat Came Back. Penner even did an impromptu request when someone shouted for Goblins. And though it might have been an adult show in a licensed venue, Penner's stage banter was as warm and positive as if he sang in front of little kids. It was hard to decide which was larger and more grand, his voice or his beard.

Funk Punk

I was at the Garrison Thursday night to see some fusion music. That may sound a big strange but an is a succint description of co-headliners Duchess Says and Yamatanka//Sonic Titan. Duchess Says came on first, despite having the larger fan-base, probably because Titan's stage set-up is quite involved.

Duchess Says combines punk with synth and even some pseudo-scatting. There was plenty of furious guitars, drums, and ragged singing but since they were laid over a foundation of synth chords and effects there was a fun danceability to their songs. This was emphasized by the singer Annie-Claude Deschênes who often went into the crowd, à la Rich Aucoin, to engage them with dancing, singing, and various props including inflatable musical instruments.

Yamatanka melds metal, Eastern concepts, and Indigenous singing and hand drumming. They exploded onto the scene and have been Polaris nominated twice. Tonight's set was similar to recent ones where the new material emphasized the more metal aspects. This shift occurred after one of the founders/singer left. Though their shows are still compelling, it's time for me to acknowledge that, similar to Hooded Fang, their sound has diverged from their origin. Which is to say, thanks for the great memories and I hope they continue to have success, but these are no longer "my bands".

Safe and Sound

On Sunday, I headed over to The Great Hall to see Maylee Todd's Virtual Womb show. Since there was quite the line-up at the last incarnation, I was there right at the "door opens" time. Unfortunately, we were still packed cheek to jowl in the stairwell as the organizers didn't open until 20 minutes later. The show's conceit is that the hall is a womb, which you enter through a giant fabric vulva (designed by Roxane Ignatius). Inside, you are encouraged to lie down on the floor with any blankets you have brought while the thump-thump of a heartbeat played in the background, and psychedelic projections cycled on the ceiling and walls.

You could stay that way for the entire show or you could sit up and experience Maylee Todd, a string section, backup singers, and dancers work their way through Todd's repertoire. The set was an equal mix of new songs from her album release and old songs drastically reworked. Somehow, the show straddled both soothing and funky.

It was, both the show and the new releases, a therapy session for Todd. It became clear through her stories that she has been doing some exploration of meditation and mindfulness and psychological self-analysis. She has chosen to share these discoveries, sometimes painful or embarrassing, with her fans/friends through music. It was a wonderful and elaborate show. I don't know if Todd even broke even on ticket sales, given how many people were obviously involved, but I'm glad she made it.

Beach Blonde Baby

Saturday I experienced a good yet bad concert at The Velvet Underground. The good: lots of high-energy pop songs and an enthusiastic crowd. The bad: well, there were several lows. But first, some background. There is an singer called Poppy who is internet-famous. Her early songs such as Lowlife may position her as just one more popstar wannabe. But there was enough self-aware irony in a tune like Money to qualify as a guilty pleasure.

Then she was dropped by her label (or not), and started posting a series of "weird" videos and songs which may be a meta-commentary on current pop culture, social media, etc. Her fans pretended that there are hidden messages within these videos, perhaps even cult-like instructions. This is her first tour, and along with the catchy tunes, there were also video projections, zany dancers, chants (and drinking mystery kool-aid), and a question of whether or not Poppy is a robot or a brain-washed puppet inducting her fans into a cult.

All of which was on full-display tonight for people in the front. For the people in the back, tiny glimpses were all we saw. I arrived 30 minutes after doors (I thought to avoid the early rush of teens) under a pouring rain. But I ended up waiting in a long line that took 40 minutes to clear. It turned out there was, for some reason, more security at this show than any other I've been to. There were 3 different checkpoints! No wonder we crawled along.

This was strange because this venue is a tiny dump, and just barely above a dive bar. In any case, this also meant that the small stage is maybe 2 feet higher than the floor. So with the crush of people, you couldn't see much unless you were within the first 5 feet. Should Poppy have played in a better venue? Or as one concert-goer declared: it was all a ruse by the booker to hype the show. Apparently, this sold-out concert had tickets on Stubhub for $5.

Her songs are fun enough to make the concert enjoyable. But as for the rest: shitty promoter, dumpy club venue, and humorless security; they've always been around but there's no way to enjoy them, even ironically.

Less Is More

Because of the show Triptyche at the Bluma Appel Theatre, I didn't arrive at Less Bar on Bloor until just past 10:30 on Thursday. So I missed Kashka doing songs from her new album. That's a shame because this synth-folk singer doesn't do full-band sets too often. Hopefully, in the new year, I can catch her new all-women set-up.

I did catch Lydia Johnson (Lizzie Lyon). This young singer was in the R&B mold. Her vocals have that urban pop cadence. I'm too old to find romantic dramas (cute-meet, meltdown, and so on) relevant but her fans/friends loved it.

As for the new venue, it has been in the local indie news. Partly because other live venues are closing, partly because of its stated goals of high-lighting female and gender-fluid artists. The name is apt because Less Bar is quite a small space. It's hard to see it having much impact for live shows, the legal capacity is probably 20 people. But there's a chance it could grow into a beloved space for intimate concerts and musician hang-out like the recently departed Holy Oak.

Running Down a Dream

Thursday night, I went to the Bluma Appel Theatre to see triptyche from Les 7 doigts. This Montréal circus company has carved a niche as being a smaller, artier Cirque du Soleil. Their last show in Toronto, Cuisine and Confessions, played at the Mirvish-owned Princess of Wales Theatre. This time round, they double-downed on their arty pretensions by commissioning actual dance choreographers for their 3 works.

Marie Chouinard has videos on youtube where commenters often quipped about stumbling on the "weird side of youtube". This has to do with her incorporation of crutches and other mobility devices into her work. So in anne & samuel, a dancer and a hand balancer found themselves interacting with each other guided by their dependence on crutches. There was something weirdly animalistic about their movement, like human-giraffe hybrids. This obviously appealed more to the dancers in the crowd.

Victor Quijada stayed more on the circus performance side with variations 9.81. With the standard handstand, bane of beginner gymnasts and yogis, as the simplest form, the balancers explored alone and together all the advanced variations of inversion work. In their movement and transitions on the ground, there was a hint of the hip-hop asthetic that are usually present in Quijada's troupe RUBBERBANDance Group.

The last piece, nocturnes, occupied a happy medium for me. But from other reviews, it seemed both dance critics and aerialists found it to be overly long but for different reasons. Starting with a woman (or perhaps a young teen girl) settling into bed, the work spun off into a fantastic dreamscape of acrobats and fish-men flying through the air. At one point, the bed rose on ropes and flew around the stage like the world's most comfortable swing. There were a few flaws for me. First, the transition from dance to circus at various points was sometimes clunky. Second, each dance work has its own unique vocabulary. So like all languages, phrases and sayings should be repeated to become familiar, and larger themes should emerge: for examination, re-iteration, re-interpretation. The need to cram so much dance and performance arts into nocturnes left little room for this sort of introspection and recall. For example, insteadof  one long section of unicycling with ever more astounding tricks, use it more judiciously sprinkled throughout the piece.

ASMR

On Monday, I was at The Burdock for a show. A bit early in the week, but The Magic, manned by two brothers, don't play in Toronto too often. It became an evening of intense experience. First up was Joyful Joyful who combined gospel and spiritual lyrics with a shoe-gaze soundscapes of repeating and echoing samples. Is drone-folk a genre? During one of the numbers, the overlapping frequencies generated literal shivering chills in my back. I sat there frozen while having a physical reaction to the music. It was deeply unpleasant, though not because the song was bad, and I'm not sure I want to experience that again.

The Magic is like Bahamas times two. They mined the same retro-funk sound complete with male falsetto singing. The audience was ripe to boogie with songs like If I Were U. They also debut new unrecorded songs such as When You Leave. This number was apparently a failed attempt to sell a pop song to another artist. But given its odd melodic and time changes, it would have been too weird for Top 40 radio. These brothers make fun, danceable music. I'm set to enjoy the rest of the week, even if real-life isn't as funky as their songs.

Hurricane Help

It was a crisp Thursday night as I headed to The Monarch Tavern for a relief concert in support of Mexico and Puerto Rico. First up was a solo set by folk-pop singer Kashka. Armed with various synth equipment and her guitar, she gave us a taste of the new songs on her latest album. I'd like to hear these new numbers with a full-band.

Next up was a trio named Rapport. So this is where Maddie Wilde (formerly of Moon King) has been lately. Their set sounds like Alvvays in the 80s, a slightly garage-band sound combined with a Miami Vice/Night Court vibe. Quite fun and danceable. The dancing continued with Regina Gently. I haven't seen this high-energy singer in a while. Her set continues to combine frenetic choreography, dance beats, and snarky lyrics. The shimmery black outfits from the other women made sense as they joined her briefly as backup dancers.

I wanted to stay for the headliner/organizer Lolaa. But like most Wavelength shows, this one was running late. I'll catch this sister-act melding of dance/rock and Latin rhythm some other time.

The Future Is Feverish

Saturday night, I attended this year's dance recital from proartedanza. This contemporary dance company often combines classical ballet with modern dance. The first piece tonight was titled Future Perfect Continuous. At the end, we realized that the piece's text came from a millennial who was terrified of future climate change, ashamed of her inaction and wasteful Western lifestyle, and unsure about what she should do. Throughout the piece, these words were broken up into fragments and incorporated into the movement and speech of the dancers. This was the most successful work for me.

The second piece, entitled adjusted surrender, highlighted two older dancers who, by this time in most careers, would have hung up their shoes. Though physical virtuosity was behind them, there was still grace and gravitas in their movement. Appropriately enough, the piece was about a married couple who were looking back on their various life decisions with fondness, regret, or bitterness.

The last piece Op Sha! didn't work for me. Supposedly about life events like birthdays and weddings while incorporating Eastern European folk dance movement, the work actually seemed too abstract. This isn't usually a problem with modern dance but with music provided by Lemon Bucket Orkestra which was so rooted in a real culture (Balkan/Klezmer), it was hard to reconcile that music with mostly non-narrative choreography. Actually, I didn't much like the music either. It was repetitive and aggressive, which might make for a great concert to dance at, but not at a recital to sit through. So overall, I think this was their weakest recital in recent years.

Tiny Tunes

On Thursday, I was at The Gladstone Hotel's Melody Bar for the second installment of Venusfest, a new concert series that aims to highlight female-identified artists. The inaugural show was an all-day event that I was unabled to attend. Tonight was a smaller affair with two acts. First up was Dorothea Paas, accompanied by a full band including Kritty Uranowski (Patti Cake). They constructed fuzzy pop soundscapes that surged and ebbed.

Headliner was sister-duo Tasseomancy. In some ways, they could be the musician's musicians as there were several singers in the audience. It was easy to see why. Their set, exuding a warm living-room feel, are comprised of elliptical songs with lyrics dense in literary references and imagery. This is not to say that their music isn't also full of melodic hooks and harmonies. But a Tasseomancy show is for impressing that boho girl with the vintage dress who carries a journal planner.