Bananas

Lately, musicians who have a reasonably large fan base but perhaps not quite an arena-level size have taken to selling 1-2 nights at a mid-size venues and adding more shows if there's demand. So on Saturday, I found myself at The Danforth Music Hall for show 3 of 5 for Afie Jurvanen (aka Bahamas).

Judging by the cheering in the crowd, solo opener Tim Baker had a pretty good fan base as well, probably from his Hey Rosetta! days. He played a variety of instruments and on songs like 18th hole (about attending an exes' wedding) stayed on the right side of white man screaming (see Glen Hansard). As a recent transplant from the East Coast, he also previewed a number of songs about the alienation of living in a condo in downtown Toronto.

Bahamas charmed the crowd with his aw-shucks mannerism and dad jokes, but his music straddled the line between sexy bangers (All The Time) and introspective indie like Lost In The Light. A song so popular he played it twice to open and close his set, even if the second time started as a jokey stunt. He was backed by a great band especially Christine Bougie on lead guitar (though she and Jurvanen traded plenty of solos and dual guitar harmonies throughout the night) and Felicity Williams on background vocals. Her soaring soprano was the highlight of almost every number and elicited plenty of cheering from the audience.