Blades of Steel Strings

Over the last 2 weeks, The World Cup of Hockey Tournament has been taking place in Toronto. As part of that, the organizers have set up a Fan Zone near The Distillery District. On Saturday, I headed there to check out the free entertainment.

I arrived just as illusionist Darcy Oake was starting his act. There were locked box body swaps, mind reading tricks, rope manipulation, and ending with a lock-pick escape from a water-filled box encasing his head. Afterwards, super-group cover band Dwayne Gretzky did a set of self-proclaimed "dad rock". Though they have been selling The Phoenix and The Danforth, there was but a handful of people, and mostly kids, for their set. The large crowd for Oake had disappeared between shows.

But DG soldiered on and went through a 75-min set low on banter but jam-packed with music, eventually pulling in fairly large audience. With members taken from various bands, they often need to recruit other musicians depending on schedule. But I haven't been to a Gretzky show with so many core members missing: most conspicuously pianist Robin Hatch (Our Lady Peace). Singer Ivy Mairi didn't try to do Hatch's more rock-and-roll covers like You Oughta Know or Barracuda but her sweet voice was perfect for older classics like Be My Baby and Preacher Man.