Pepsi Blue

Pepsi was offering a series of free concert called Pepsi Pop-up inside the "world's largest" Pepsi bottle so I went down Wednesday night for the first show. It turned out to be a giant inflatable Pepsi bottle set up in a parking lot on Richmond St. Appropriately enough, free Pepsi bottles were also handed out.

The opener was The Meligrove Band. According to their status updates, they haven't played in 2 years. But there were a number of fans, as well as curious listeners, here for their show. This 4-piece had a dual personality. With songs sung by the drummer such as Kingfisher, they were noisy and punk-ish, with bits of cerebral prog-rock guitar riffs thrown in. When the lead singer took his turn, tunes like Ages & Stages and Our Love Will Make The World Go Round were catchier pop.

It was amazing that 8-piece Dwayne Gretzky were able to cram themselves on the small stage. Tonight, they resisted doing more "obscure" covers of The Band or Steely Dan and stuck to crowd-pleasing numbers such as Sledgehammer, Dancing In The Dark, and You Can't Hurry Love. Occasional stand-in guitarist Champagne James Robertson (currently touring with Lindi Ortega) electrified the set with his characteristic twangy solos. Given their young-ish fanbase (in addition to the old-timers), I wish they added more 90s tunes.

It was a fun night but the relentless branding was weird. It wasn't just the free drinks and the workers wearing company logos. The hyping of the event seemed over-the-top: "First time in Canada", "A huge successful at Glastonbury", "I say Pepsi, you say Pop-up ... Pepsi", "Are you having a good time? Scream!" It didn't seem to really to connect with the crowd, either because of their typical Torontonian reserve or their low-key "indie" attitude.