Sweaty, Sweaty Night

Though they don't have a weekly show at the Dakota this summer, Dwayne Gretzky snuck in a Sunday night gig this past week-end. There's not much to say that I haven't said before: they play polished, high-energy covers of everyone from Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Van Morrison, The Beatles, and all artists in between. Not too many songs from the last 2 decades though. Credit for the great show must also be given to the crowd, though the place was really only about a third full. Instead of standing back from the stage and being stand-offish which is typical of Toronto shows, they crowded cheek-to-jowl right up at the front and needed no prompting to sing and dance. The "downside" to that atmosphere was another night of sweat-soaked clothing.

A couple of old Gretzky-ers who had disappeared from the line-up at the end of last summer showed up for a couple of songs. Nicholas Doubleyou and the B-Squad opened the evening. I saw them do an acoustic set for NXNE and they were even more enthusiastic amplified.