A Taste of Ewe

Before attending a concert on Wednesday, I paid $24 for dinner from a food court. Was it caused by the recent price hikes on groceries? Probably. But mostly because after reuniting with my favourite Indian chef, and eating his delicious parathi rolls for lunch, I knew I had to return to try the pricier evening offers.

The only downside was that I had forgotten my face-mask and was in the subway during the rush-hour. Even without the threat of Covid, I can't imagine being unmasked in that packed crowd and risking flu, colds, and other transmissible diseases. But apparently most people didn't mind breathing all that stale air. Now onto the good stuff. In a nutshell, chef Saha's Gosht Nizami ($24) was exquisite. The people around me, eating KFC and Subway, might have thought I was a little strange. Why was this person closing their eyes and savouring every bite? Because the spices were perfectly balanced, each cube of lamb wonderfully tender, and the biryani rice (I had some early doubt since it looked too wet) was fragrant and rich. I have eaten at fancier offerings that were half as good. I do love stick-to-your-ribs South Asian but this was on another level.

Back at my rental, I didn't experience any after effects of a rich meal. So I made my way to The Drake Underground. Opening band Burs was a bit all-over-the-map. When they stuck to propulsive folk-rock like on Country Song from their upcoming album, they were tight and on fire. But on several numbers, a middle section or coda degenerated into a noisy shoe-gaze interlude. This sort of mish-mash only worked some of the time.

Case Oats was a new band with some indie/alt country buzz.  Fronted by Casey Gomez Walker (of Midwestern small-town stock) but based in Chicago, they have already signed to label Merge Records. Toronto was officially 1 of 3 album release venues. So for their set, Oats played their debut album Last Missouri Exit front to back. These songs were essentially a snap-shot of Walker's coming-of-age since she originally wrote them as short poems or lyrical fragments. They were about looking back (Seventeen), growing apart from your hometown friends (In A Bungalow), and your exe's girlfriend (Nora). There was only 1 love song (Wishing Stone) but plenty about toxic men (Buick Door, Bitter Root Lake, Hallelujah).

After wrapping up Last Missouri Exit, Case Oats played several new songs and a cover of The Clash's Lost In The Supermarket. Overall, I really liked these sharply observed verses and Walker's matter-of-fact singing (she also had a small sneer) straddled the line between honest and cynical. The only snag was she started to lose her voice about 3 songs in. This made Walker quipped that "you'll have to buy the record to hear how they should really sound".

The audience were mostly young but I was surprised to see quite a few middle-aged men. I'm guessing it was partly due to the reputation of the drummer dad's (Jeff Tweedy of Wilco) that brought them out. I was going to get some merch but the line-up was long and slow. I needed to get back to my rental for an early morning ride back to Ottawa.