Bright On Beach

The Beaches in the East End is its own area, and often doesn't even feel like part of Toronto. Likewise, I don't venture out that way. So when Retrocity, the 80s a capella group, puts on a free show with the Beaches Jazz Festival every year, I also use it as an opportunity to see what has changed in that part of town.

It looked like rain but the clouds cleared for Retrocity's set. As usual, they brought multi-part harmonies to numbers like Easy Lover and Say Say Say. Sometimes they concentrate on certain themes. Today it was jazz arrangements of tunes and a smattering of Canadian content (Black Station White Station, Go For Soda). After their set, 3 svelte ladies in creamy white dresses, appropriately named The Willows, took the stage with 40s-style music that invoked sock hops and soda shops.

The Beaches, of course, don't change. But Queen St. W running from Eaton Centre has undergone lots. The stretch between Yonge and Jarvis is still run down with a few dive bars and shops hanging on. Condos are filling in the landscape up to the bridge over the Don Valley. There were still old buildings on the other side all the way to Kingston Road, but the businesses in them show that gentrification is almost 100% complete in every neighbourhood.