Silver Age

Rouge

The Silver Dollar Room is nestled between a transient hotel and a men's shelter at College and Spadina. Not to mention a nondescript club that is often the target of drug busts. So I've always thought this venue was on the seedy side. Much to my surprise, it was a clean and well-kept bar. There wasn't much space in front of the tiny stage, the rest being taken up by bar tables, but it had a good sound-system operated by an attentive sound engineer. This wasn't a problem Thursday night since the crowd was sadly sparse.

Fantasy Defender came up first. The trio combined straight rock with slightly funky bass and synth backing tracks. They had good stage presence, but with the muscular songs that they played, the lead singer Amanda needs to take a page from Jacquie of the Balconies and inject a little more rock swagger.

Bocce bounded up on stage dressed in silver jump-suits. As they loaded up their video projector with scenes from 40s and 50s sci-fi movies, it was clear that they came to give us a retro vision of the future. Fronted by a theremin-like Moog, old synthesizers, and lead vocals that are distorted through multiple amp effects, they gave a high-energy set of fun electronica. This was the most enjoyably danceable music I've heard in a while culminating in a great performance of Robot Servant. But they needed a larger crowd that would groove to their songs.

Rouge was last on stage at 12:45 am. They decorated the stage with negligees and bras to induce more sexy dancing. But only the band's friends have stuck around, and a few stragglers finishing up their beer. They ran through a short set including their two release singles Modern Lovers I and Destruction, tried out a new tune, did a Britney Spears cover. For an encore, they also covered Robyn's With Every Heartbeat.

Fantasy Defender

Bocce