Still Thrill

With Halloween tomorrow, all-female Weezer cover band Sheezer was holding their 5th annual Halloween bash at Lee's Palace Thursday. As before, they enlisted several female acts as opener. Instead of a graduate of Girls Rock Camp Toronto like in the past 2 years, The Lonely Parade came from Girls Rock Camp Peterborough. This trio played music that was somewhere between punk and math rock, lots of hard-driving chords interspersed with multiple changes and syncopated riffs. As a punk band, they have the noisy chops. But if they are adding more complexity to their music, they will need to be crisper and less sloppy, especially in the interactions between the 3 members. However, songs like Hey Felix show promise.

Petra Glynt is the strangest invitee to a Sheezer show as yet, and tonight's crowd didn't know how to react to her noisy loops and synth. I saw her at a Long Winter show, and was interested to hear her with a better sound system. Her classical voice training came through in a rich resonant tone. But she was more interested in building layers of cacophany sitting on top of primal, driving beats pounded out by her on the bass tom. Her newer songs, which explored more poly-rhythm and less chaotic droning, were definitely more accessible. If you can tap your toes to it, even a skeptical crowd can enjoy avant-garde compositions.

The song Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) signaled the entrance of the ladies of Sheezer. No wonder, since this year their costumes came from Tarantino's kung-fu homage: The Bride (Robin), high-school bodyguard Gogo Yubari (Alysha), Yakuza boss O-Ren Ishii (Dana), and sadistic nurse Elle Driver (Laura). These were attractive outfit, especially Laura's peek-a-boo nurse uniform, and came perilously close to the "sexy costume" trope. This led them to humorously riff on next year's costumes, perhaps a Twin Peaks homage with a "sexy David Lynch".

Unlike other Sheezer shows, there were no later Weezer songs (like Hash Pipe) tonight. It was all Blue and Pinkerton (Tired of Sex, Buddy Holly, Say It Ain't So) much to the delight of the crowd who sang, chanted, and clapped along. With die-hard Weezer fans in the front, even the less popular tunes had a good number who knew all the words. A mosh pit formed now and then, to the slight consternation (fun but scary!) of some less bro-ish fans. Halloween costumes weren't just limited to the band members. So Andrew WK, a tin woman, a mucho libre, and two Airdancers joined them on stage for Undone (The Sweater Song). This led to the delightful scene of the two mascots (complete with flailing arms) who, with the crowd's exhortation, stage-dove and were borne aloft. I don't know if an actual Weezer concert would be as much fun.