Angels On High

On Tuesday, I was at The Drake Underground for my last live show of this year. It was a wonderful evening to cap off 2018. Georgian Bay opened the night. This duo sang of mining towns and everyday observations. They were multi-instrumentalists (mandolin, violin, guitar) and sang in harmony. The songs often mix both English and French in the lyrics. The new song Roi was a rousing feminist anthem. Though if it was anti-patriarchical, "je suis une reine" would be more suitable lyrics.

The O'Pears album release set was the best show that I saw this year. The trio took the stage and dazzled us with complex harmonies. The swelling chorus from still un-released song Thunder gave me goose-bumps. When you think it couldn't get any better, they brought in a full band, a string section, and 3 additional back-up singers. This made the songs from Stay Warm astonishingly beautiful live, surpassing even their wonderful recording. Then they dialed it back for the last few songs, showing that just their voice was enough on covers River (Joni Mitchell), The Way I Feel (Gordon Lightfoot), and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

Songs of Love

On a quiet Sunday night, I dropped by The Burdock for 2 troubadours. It was a sparse but attentive crowd. Jenny Berkel opened the night. She had a low, calm voice but that may be due to a lingering illness. I enjoyed her intricate fingering on the guitar. The multi-part harmonies provided by her sister and Stephen Foster (Omhouse) were sweet and understated.

Foster came back as the drummer for headliner Luka. I don't love this all-male configuration of this band because the 60s crooner style and unapologetically romantic songs of Luke Kuplowsky really soar with female back-up singers. Luckily, one of them was in the audience tonight. Julie Arsenault joined Luka for 2 numbers and her contributions were immediately apparent. But I still quite like his set of love and heartache, though I usually find most love songs boring. The addition of flautist Ann Phung, who handled most of the solos, gave some fun and whimsy to the music.

Jingle Bells

On Friday, I was at a free Christmas market at Longboat Hall, the underground venue below The Great Hall on Queen St. W. As Lot 40 was the sponsor, there were lots of whiskey concoctions in people's hands. There weren't too many vendors though. Not only was the space small, but most of it was left clear for the crowd to mingle, dance, and listen to the live bands. So along the walls there was a temporary tattoo vendor and the usual hand-made paper, scarves, lotion sellers. There were also a few small art installations scattered about.

A smaller Dwayne Gretzky configuration took the stage at 8 pm. As Tyler Kite mentioned early on, this was going to be a chill set. It was a definitely low-key collection of Dad Rock songs. It was an odd choice especially considering the young age of the crowd. Perhaps it was inspired by the setting or the corporate sponsor. Though enjoyable, new listeners might wonder from this set why this cover band would sell out The Danforth Music Hall.

As there weren't any Christmas merchandise that interested me, I wasn't there to drink and schmooze, and the CHUM FM vibe was soporific, I decided to leave early though the Surfrajettes was setting up and a 2nd Gretzky set was scheduled for 11 pm.

Moon Bright

On Thursday, I was at the Monarch Tavern for an eclectic but enjoyable show. Prince Ness started early but had a good crowd. Their set reminded me a bit of the Talking Heads with a little bit of Hooded Fang from their early twee pop phase. They had a small, vocal group of fans who danced weird (this is a good thing). In my younger days, Prince Ness would probably be the sort of local, under-the-radar band I'd embraced.

It's been a while since Carmen Elle sang outside of her front-woman gig with Diana. And probably the first time I've seen her doing a solo acoustic set. But she brought all her electric guitar skills including driving chords and ring harmonics to some personal lyrics. Her assured stage presence kept the audience rapt throughout.

I saw NYC band Ava Luna opened for Warpaint a few years ago and was impressed. After tonight, and likely the most engaging set I've seen this year, I'm always bemused by which band achieve success. By any metric, the performance theatre + devo + funk energy of this band should be seen at a much larger venue than this rinky-dink (if loved) old bar. No matter the song, the drum and bass kept a complex, but tight, section. The 3 singers brought their own stylings from R'n'B to musical theatre. It was a wonderful set both musically and visually, as well as making your butt move.