Hot Fire Below

Burdock is a new Bloor St. restaurant/live venue that has taken over an old Portuguese BBQ joint 2 blocks west of Dufferin. On Tuesday, I went to check it out. The live venue was clean and shiny, but long and narrow, with tungsten bulbs hung from the ceiling. The sound quality was good for its size and amazingly they had stage lights.

Melanie Brulée was playing in support of her new French album Débridée. For the evening, she has assembled a full band as well as guest singer Faye Blais. For the first few numbers, she stuck to English songs off her last album. Although songs Small Town & The Prey, the lyrics are both in English and French. Her music straddled between a bit of country, blues, and rock. The latter half of her set contained des chansons français like Antidote de doute, the slow-burning Qui suis-je?, and the heavy-hitting Asteroïde. But she might have a radio hit on her hand with Obtus. For the encore, Brulée passed out egg shakers so people can join in on her spirited cover of Walk Like An Egyptian. As a singer, her songs covered the whole pop spectrum but that was also a weakness. Given her tough-mama stage presence and voice, I think she'd have more success concentrating on the rock numbers.