CanCon

Friday night, I was at the last show of the Dwayne Gretzky residency at the Horseshoe. Even though it was only 9:30, there was already a line-up outside. This prompted some complaints including a few about "suburbanites". True, inside the packed venue, there was a range of grooming and dress styles. It was subtly different than the crowd for their shows at The Dakota. But you only start to sell out venues like The Horseshoe or Danforth Music Hall once you have a bigger "average Joe" fanbase.

Appropriately, Harlan Pepper opened tonight. I first saw them as the unofficial house band backing Toronto musicians doing covers of "Winnipeg songwriters". On their own songs, they cycled between twangy country numbers such as Chug Along and rock with a bit of soul like Bang Bang Boom. They had some good tunes so their set felt surprisingly short. People definitely wanted to hear more.

For their final themed set, Gretzky was doing Canadiana. With these sets, it could feel a bit cliche. So there was a bit of the Classic Rock radio vibe because although there were some new numbers including a New Pornographers song, it was mostly familiar songs including Courage (Tragically Hip), Help Me (Joni Mitchell), and One Week (Bare-naked Ladies). But with oddball Bud The Spud (Stompin Tom), an intense Danko Jones covering Doesn't Really Matter (Platinum Blonde), and a note-perfect Tom Sawyer (Rush) after Nick Rose quipped: "Are you ready for this?", you just have to surrender to the moment.

For the second set, they continued to sneak in more Canadian content including You Oughta Know (Alanis Morissette) and Lost Together (Blue Rodeo). But there were plenty of other popular tunes. At 1:45 am, the crowd was still up for an encore. With 15 minutes to closing time, Dwayne Gretzky finished off with I Want You Back, Under Pressure, and Blinded By The Light. After that, it was time to make my way past the bleary drunks and head on home.