Hey, Hey, You, You

On Saturday, I was at The Horseshoe for a benefit concert. To a sold-out and predominantly female crowd, a number of Toronto bands did two sets of Avril Lavigne's songs. The whole thing started from a practice session of two members of The Beaches. For me, the first set was more cohesive. Members of the Beaches and The Elwins took turns as the house band, after doing their own covers like Boyfriend. A plethora of guests came on stage including Taylor Knox, Leah Fay (July Talk), and Nefe for their own rendition from the Lavigne songbook. The audience was ecstatic and sang and danced along deliriously.

The second set  continued to have more guests including fresh-from-a-wedding Jason Couse (The Darcys) and Brave Shores. But the mood was definitely more up and down, mostly because full bands started setting up their own equipment. No matter how fast they tried, the set-up and tear-down for a single song killed the evening's energy for me. After the third such attempt, I decided to call it a night. On a happier note, it was also a special evening for the littlest Beach, Kylie Miller turned 21 at midnight with the whole bar singing Happy Birthday to her.