Head of the Class

Friday morning, I was heading yet again to Dufferin Mall for more household items. These purchases were eating into my monthly budget. It was a more leisurely walk since I wasn't working. My new company gave their main U.S. employees every other Friday off as a work-life balance perk. 8 months after being acquired, us Canadian workers finally got it as well.

In the evening, I headed to The Rivoli for the first of the Class of 2026 show. These concerts, curated every year by Exclaim! magazine and Dan Burke, aimed to showcase up-and-coming bands. I overheard Burke complaining to someone that he didn't think there were as many good bands as in the old days (but also admitting he didn't go to many shows anymore). So I'm not sure he's the best candidate to book these concerts.

Tonight's show had 4 excellent bands although the first opener was perhaps the weakest. I noticed that Adam Feibel, the lead singer/songwriter of Survival Club was older. He started out as a music reviewer for Exclaim! It may explain the 90s earnestness of numbers like The Beauty In Everything which sometimes feel a bit dated. Fox Atticus (once of Goodbye Honolulu) fronted an outfit that played fast and furious garage rock. But they added variety with slow, moody tunes and even a chugging blues-rock number. With his straggly hair and tendency to yowl, he reminded me of a younger Jack White.

The highlight of the evening for me was Absolute Treat. I never saw them when they were Dilettante for a few pandemic years but I did catch them as For Jane at a Class of 2019 concert. This will be their 3rd Class-of "graduation" (Dilettante also made the grade) so hopefully they will now finally get some traction. They have always dabbled in power-pop but I wondered if their lean into disco came after their set covering The Bee Gees at a Death to V.D. (Valentine's Day) concert. New songs Hard Candy and Burning Up got the crowd dancing. Older Dilettante numbers like Donna and Bonnie (the song that got them much deserved attention by being featured on hit show Heated Rivalry) also hit hard. The difference was a top-notch live band including Maddie Wilde (Rapport) on keys and Steven Foster (Omhouse) on drums. Absolute Treat ended with their latest single Shattered Love that included the funkiest thank-you list (The Rivoli, Burke, and the other bands) that I've ever heard.

I saw Lia Pappas-Kemps as a 15-year-old singer on a pandemic Zoom concert with Moscow Apartment. I haven't been following her progress since then but 5 years later, she was getting plaudits for her songs. But it turns out that before her own kick at the musical can, her older sister also played in a teen band called Pins & Needles. They didn't last for more than a few years before pursuing separate paths including the trio Tange with Luna Li before her big solo breakout. I didn't connect as much to Lia's music since she was concerned with typical 20-something problems (Switchblade, Reservations, Revolving Doors). But her song-craft was excellent: modern cadence and rhymes with chord progressions that was different enough to be interesting but not too strange. Her studio band, playing live for the first time, added shimmering guitar riffs and lovely drums. With already a large fan-base from her TV days, Lia will likely move to the next stage in her career soon.