Triple Threat

On Saturday, I was at The Harbourfront Theatre to watch a retrospective celebrating Art of Time (a musical group) 20-year anniversary. For this particular performance, it was the collaboration they have done with dance companies.

Fifteen Heterosexual Duets (James Kudelka) found 5 pairs of dancers, accompanied by violin and piano, displayed various male-female dynamics. It was a propulsive start to evening with a flurry of lifts, spins, and pas-de-deux. Two actors played out Romeo and Juliet Act 3 Scene 5 before the scene was reprised as another Kudelka piece.

After a short pause, National Ballet's Tanya Howard explored contemporary movements while Andrew Burasko hammered out a John Cage composition. The most affecting performance for me was the final work Misesere. Five dancers, constantly entwined and connected, moved with deliberation through various tableaus. If these often carried religious overtone, it was due to Allegri's composition, and the exquisite singing of the 20-member Tafelmusik Chamber Choir. Standing on two levels behind the dancers, their voices rang out with such grace that they'd make believers out of almost anyone.

That Is Not Dead

I attended the early Death To T.O. shows at the defunct Silver Dollar venue but haven't gone since they moved to the larger Lee's Palace. This local-bands-cover-famous-bands series also died recently. But since it was resurrected this year I thought I'd check out its evolution. Like before, the 20-minute sets were rotated between two venues; in this case, the larger Lee's downstairs and The Dance Cave upstairs. As the night grew, the crush got larger and larger. I  left relatively early as the list of later sets wasn't appealing enough versus the enormous crowd.

In Drift did a fun Blondie and should be commended for not playing the mega hits. The Effens looked and sounded like CCR. And for the most part the bands also dressed like their covered band or at least of that era. None more so than Rapport. They all dressed in the finest 80s outfit but Maddie Wilde was Cyndi Lauper, complete with colourful skirts and dyed hair. She even had a New Yawk accent for the banter.  Then it was downstairs for the danceable New Order (Komodo). By this time, it was getting too hard for me to switch venues. So I missed both sets of Patti Smith and Pink Floyd in The Cave. At Lee's, Nyssa was channeling Elvis Presley. This was the first time I saw her with a backingn band instead of just backing tracks and samples. She has the swagger to be a great front-woman. The last set of the night for me was an uplifting set of The Cranberries (Jessica Upton Crowe). I think many in the audience also found it cathartic.

Spring Loaded

On Thursday, The Danforth Music Hall hosted two incredibly high-energy performers. First up was Big Freedia. She brought a DJ, 2 dancers, a band to book-end her set, and Atlanta Bounce to Toronto. This genre recently hit the mainstream with several songs from Drake, which Big Freedia sang including Nice For What. Both the dancers and Freedia gyrated and twerked all night, finally inviting some Toronto audience members on stage to show if they can also shake their money maker.

New Orleans-based Tank and The Bangas kept the energy going with a theatrical set equal parts funk, spoken word and rap. Though lead singer Tarriona Ball sometimes unleashed her pipes, when she sang it was usually in a baby-ish voice. Though the crowd may not have danced with the same fervour as in the first set, they were equally entranced with the spectacle on stage.

Remember The Time

In gentrifying Toronto, live venues disappear regularly. And sometimes old ones get re-purposed/discovered by the younger generation. One such is the Owl's Club in a run-down legion hall near Bloor and Dovercourt. So when I was there on Saturday for the final show of Entire Cities, there was a nostalgic vibe coming from both the venue and the audience, mostly 30-somethings who were transitioning out of all-night parties into adult responsibilities. As the evening progressed, there were a lot of people running into friends they haven't seen in years.

It was an eclectic show because the lead singer of Entire Cities just wanted to hear some good stuff and meet up with some old buddies. So the evening started with Kashka. Her duo set of electro pop kept the chill vibe for the early crowd. Then Val Heimpel provided some topical stand-up comedy about the travails of work and dating in the 21st century.

Things got loud with LILIM, a feminist metal band. The venue wasn't really equipped for their volume so it was an unfortunately muddy set. With less clarity to their provocative lyrics, it didn't sound as innovative. Meghan Harrison then entertained the crowd with her rambling poetry about nerdy pursuits like Weezer and High Fidelity.

Melody McKiver combined violin looping and First Nations concerns and imagery in a powerful set. Nich Worby came out of semi-retirement (and a Thanksgiving dinner stupor) for a few indie tunes. Finally, Entire Cities played their final set. It was catchy pop in the Arcade Fires mold, and obviously meant a lot to the audience. As they sang along, the songs likely brought back collective memories of being young and new to Toronto. It was good enough music to make me wished I had heard of them when they started 12 years ago.

I Also Like Grapefruit

Since her participation on Geneviève Marentette's show at Gallery 345, I've been looking forward to trumpetist's Marie Goudy album release. On Wednesday, I headed down to venerable The Rex for the Bitter Suite.

To bring her 4-movement jazz suite to life, Goudy and her 12-tet were crammed onto the tiny stage. Such large configuration usually means bombastic big-band music. But tonight, it was subtle and complex lyricism both in orchestration and verse (provided by singer Jocelyn Barth). Goudy traced the progression of a romantic relationship through the metaphor of 4 seasons. There were still plenty of Jazz solos, sometimes too much for my taste. But overall, I loved the compositional foundation of this suite which for me felt richer and more fully realized than the typical chart/songbook style of most Jazz sets.

Slurp Slap

Quite a few condos are going up in the Sheppard and Consumer Road area. But further in on Consumer, a curious 4 stories structure has been completed. But neither residential dwellings nor office space, it was simply a 3-level parking garage. The only upside is that the ground floor was occupied by 7-8 restaurants.

One of the biggest was Omni Noodle. Once inside, you can see through the glass partition into the kitchen that the noodles are freshly spun out from dough as orders come in. As expected, the menu was dominated by either fried noodle dishes or noodle soups. You can customize your noodle by selecting the type (such as wheat), style (flat, round, etc.), and thickness. On Wednesday for lunch, I chose the vegetarian soup ($10.99) and a thick, round noodle. The noodle was good but too thick. Next time, I would probably choose a thinner style or thickness. My main issue was that the soup was a sad bowl with a few greens. Compared to the mix of pine nuts, corn, mushrooms and more from Landing Noodle near Spadina, this soup was barely worth eating.

A Place on Earth

On Saturday I was at The Tranzac for a low-key show. The smaller front room often has a DIY aesthetic, not least because like tonight there wasn't even anybody doing the sound mix. It was up to each performer to fix it for themselves. Also, it was usually friends and family who attend these cozy sets.

Kelly McMichael did a solo set of her Renders material including several new songs with feminist themes (She's Bad Ass). She was a deft hand on the guitar, but I liked that she incorporated looping, triggered samples, and some backing tracks to fill out the sound. McMichael has quite an ear for 80s-inspired pop (and matching Belinda Carlisle vocals) but given her time with defunct synth-pop outfit Rouge, it wasn't a complete surprise.

I haven't heard much from Claire Whitehead since she stopped playing with parodic band Blimp Rock. This guitarist has decided to try her hand at songwriting and formed Carew. Her new music reminded me of The Weather Station in its observation of everyday life. But the lyrics were more conventional, especially the rhymes.

Vintage

On Thursday, after scarfing down some noodle soup at Landing Noodle, I headed one block over to The Supermarket for an early show. In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of Love Junk, and a double vinyl release, The Pursuit of Happiness was doing a special show where they played the full album.

The crowd was an eclectic mix. Most were older and from that era; some obviously came straight from work in their business suits. But there were a smattering of young people barely in their twenties hanging out at the back. TPOH went through every song with energy and gusto and the audience sang along to every verse. Frontman Moe Berg pointed out a couple of extra-special moments: playing Tree of Knowledge for the first time in 28 years, the guitar tech was the same friend that came with them on their original Love Junk tour.