Great Scott!

There were 3 bands playing at a show at The Velvet Underground on Monday. But since I was visiting a friend and then grabbing dinner afterwards, I didn't make it to the venue before the second act. Similar to other all-ages show, this one was packed from the get-go. But with this club's flat layout and low stage, I barely got a glimpse of the musicians from near the back of the room. Some of the shorter teens had to watch the show through their smartphone raised up over other people's heads.

Fanclubwallet was actually from Ottawa. I thought about checking out their show at Club Saw earlier this month but found out they were playing on this tour. They had an indie sound big on fuzzy chords. But there was also some punch to their music thanks to some early 90s Weezer-esque rhythm.

Head-liner Penelope Scott was a product of social media. Her self-produced music reached her audience via viral TikTok videos and Spotify streams. It was a testament to its big-city status that everyone plays Toronto, even extremely online artists. I was here because I had heard Rät, her critique of tech bro culture (it was originally titled Elongated Muskrat). The other old folks were probably here to watch their kids.

Scott writes verse after verse (after verse) of whimsical observations. She reminded me a bit of Ben Caplan. But whereas the latter was big and bombastic, Scott was wry and self-effacing. Her solo set was divided into a guitar part, a piano middle section, and a final third with backing tracks. It was interesting that her lyrics felt different to me because of that. Scott on guitar was confessional (Dead Girls), musical theatre on piano (Montreal), and winkingly ironic with electronic beats (Cigarette Ahegao). I preferred the latter with its dancey, 8-bit bloops and blips.

All-ages audience tend to know their lyrics. But I was impressed that they could sing Scott's densely-packed verses. I can barely remember what I did last week. She debuted a few new tunes that had shorter, more pop lyrics, but they were less memorable. Scott's strength was her verbiage so she should look to Tori Amos and Fiona Apple as artists who had long careers with wordy songs.