Cat Scratch Fever

Friday night, I dropped by Academy of Lions at Ossington and Queen. This is an old-style CrossFit gym in the back with a cafe in the front. Tonight, the cafe has been transformed via workout benches, boxes, and wooden pews into a live music venue organized by Canadian Music Centre.

Given its expensive cost and its staid, somnolent halls, I'm of the opinion that classical music needs to be played more cheaply and in more welcoming venues. So a $10 door and in a room with baristas and faded street signs, that's perfect. The standing-room only crowd was far more diverse and eclectic than a typical classical recital. The night felt electric. Unfortunately, I was mostly disappointed with the show.

The string quartet Music In The Barns has apparently fully embraced the motto of "new music in new places" because all 3 pieces were aggressively contemporary: atonal chords, dissonant passages, and sometimes fingernail-down-the-blackboard screeches. The audience seemed baffled and stymied. This was not music to convince the curious young 20-something, more familiar with indie or pop, to listen to classical music. The grey-haired members didn't like the caterwauling either.

The piece that got the warmest response straddled the line between accessible music and interesting exploration. In Quartet for Heart and Breath (Rose Bolton), the musicians wore stethoscopes with the chest-piece placed over their heart. Using cues from the score, they played sweeping chords timed to their own inhalations and exhalations and pizzicato plucks in rhythm to their heartbeats. It was fun, musical, and enjoyable.

After a break with a stylized act by magician Harry Zimmerman, Tasseomancy took to the stage. I first heard their mythic folk at the Long Winter Showcase and liked their music. The remaining audience, still a healthy mixture of young and mature, was quite receptive to their melancholic, dreamy numbers drawn mostly from an upcoming sophomore album. Wryly acknowledging the heaviness of their music ("Here are 2 songs with some beat"), they ended their set with 2 punchier songs including the dance-y Jacob.