TIFF Music

The Cliks

The Drake Underground is having live music every night during the TIFF movie festival. First up on Saturday night was The Cliks. The bassist from Hill and The Sky Heroes was the singer on this band while the singer from Hill moonlighted as the bassist. Given this commonality, it was not a surprise that their book-end songs shared the same surf rock aesthetic: running guitar lines and punchy drums. But the bulk of their material fell into the intersection between loud blues/rock and boy band. With a slight pompadour and a smooth warm delivery, Lucas Silveira stuck to love angst (Cry Me A River, Whatever You Like) but the loud guitar and bass gave the material some edge.

After Hill and Lucas switched instruments and waited on the arrival of the other band members, Hill and The Sky Heroes took to the stage. They were missing the wild harmonies of Saidah Baba Talibah, but the other singers compensated. With fast numbers The Moon and No Man's Land, their distinctive driving guitars and drum style characterized most of the songs, with slight detours into twangy reverb and slide guitar. They stuck mostly to rocking numbers though they did slow down for Love Isn't Safe and Doctor, Doctor. With the ticket desk abandoned later on in the night, curious listeners from the upstairs lounge came down for a free introduction to songs like In Retrospect (You Were The Asshole). Despite the slightly bitter, confrontational tone of typical Hill Kourkoutis' lyrics, the night ended on an optimistic note with The Better Way, complete with extended kazoo coda.