Shining Bright

On Friday, I came at the tail end of Devin Cuddy's set at Indie Friday at Yonge-Dundas Square. The emcee then spent the next 20 minutes schmoozing with the crowd to kill some time while they set up for the headliner. What an exhausting job, but I guess some people love it.

The set-up this year was much better. There was a professional camera-man filming the stage for projection on the big screen. More importantly, the sound system was big enough to fill the space and professionally mixed and balanced.

I don't want to be like some journalists who throw in extraneous details about a female performer's appearance. But Kandle is a gorgeous singer/guitarist especially for her close-ups on a 50-foot screen. And good looks opens doors in all circumstances: few artists in mainstream pop are physically unattractive. So you might think this could be leveraged to propel her to pop stardom.

But her music is a tough sell. Almost every song was a slow, bluesy pop-rock number. For her fans, this indie authenticity was the draw. But for the first-time listener or curious passerby, there was no feel-good song to tap your toes and maybe dance a little. So despite Kandle's exhortation, no mosh-pit or party spontaneously appeared. In fact, the crowd kept thinning out from the square; by the end of her set, only a scattering of people remained.