Junction Function

3030 Dundas promises to bring live music out of downtown locations into the quiet Dundas/Keele area. The area is busy enough with its trendy boutiques and restaurants, but perhaps not much nightlife after 10 pm.

I arrived there for a free show hosted by Exclaim! and a local brewery. It was a large space, too large for its anemic sound system. The clientele skewed 30s and older, the younger people obviously only ventured here for their music fix. It had a bit of a meat market vibe, or at least dudes with wandering (and speculative) eyes. Unsteady feet, too; I can't abide anyone who can't hold their liquor before 11 pm.

The sound system was weaker than I imagined, since not only were there no mics for the guitars and bass (they relied on just their amps), and the ones for the drum kit didn't seem to work (or set at such low levels as to be undetectable). Nevertheless, opener Gay got the spirit of their goofy, punk-pop music across: a dash of ironic crooning, some growly yell-sing, and a lot of banging guitar. Language-Arts did benefit with their 3-part harmony and Kristen Cudmore's complex lyrics. Yet Daniel McIntosh's furious drumming lost a good chunk of its power without amplification. But if you were standing at the front you could still feel some of that pace. Cudmore might come across as twee with her baby-ish voice but she had a sailor's mouth. This wasn't the 1st time I've heard some eyebrow-raising jokes from her. In any case, I wasn't feeling the place's vibe and left before seeing the top (or bottom?) piece of her "great sandwich" that was By Divine Right.