Hall of Sound

Tanika Charles

This Friday, it was another edition of The Big Sound at The Great Hall (Queen and Dovercourt). The Big Sound is a 20-piece Motown band composed of musicians from all genres who get together every 2 months to play.

Like before, the night started slowly with a DJ spinning Motown hits. Eventually, by the time the band took to the stage just after midnight, the venue was full with everybody dancing and shimmying. A great cheer greeted the first singer and it never stopped. I didn't realize how much dancing was going on until Tanika Charles singing Heatwave (Martha and the Vandellas). I stopped for a breather and wondered why I was still moving? Because the entire floor was shaking and undulating from 400+ people dancing.

Maylee Todd

Every singer had two songs and I was disappointed not seeing Maylee Todd taking the lead until her duet on You're All I Need To Get By (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell). The male singer's visibly pregnant wife came on stage and it became a personal serenade. You can feel the whole place exhaled an "awww".

Their short set, only 10 songs, caught people by surprised. For myself, I thought Maylee should do more than 1 song as she was clearly the most dynamic singer on stage. To chants of "one more song", the band conferred quickly (probably didn't expect an encore), and came back to loud cheers. I was happy to see Maylee take the mike, and boy, did she ever blow the roof off the place with her high-octane rendition of the Jackson 5's ABC.