Teen Dream

Friday night, I went to an early show at The Mod Club. I knew that Australian band San Cisco had a young fan-base. But unlike their previous Toronto stops, tonight was an all-ages show. So I stepped inside to rapturous screams from a packed house of teens.

Turns out it wasn't just Jordan and Scarlett from San Cisco that were inspiring all the vocal idolizing. There were also plenty of young fans for new Brooklyn outfit Mothxr, mostly for former Gossip Girl actor Penn Badgley who was the frontman. Their radio-friendly music: a little ballad, a bit of soul, a dash of falsetto singing, seemed to be in the mold of Bruno Mars et al.

San Cisco also seemed to be leaning that way for their most recent release. Covering the bulk of Gracetown (Magic, Mistakes, Skool), there were lots of catchy pop in their set. Even their older songs like Awkward and Fred Astaire had more groove. There was even some hip-hop(ish) feelings on Jealousy and Super Slow (when Scarlett stepped out from behind her drum-kit for a few verses). The set ended with Run, the sort of upbeat breezy pop that these Aussies excel at.