Kensington Kosher

The Kensington Market and Spadina area used to be a Jewish enclave. These immigrants have assimilated and spread out to other parts of the city, leaving it to the next generation of immigrants mainly Chinese and Latinos. There are a few reminders including a still active synagogue. As for eateries, deli Free Times Cafe still sits on the edge of this zone.

As such, Nu Bugel's tagline is "The bagel has returned to the Market", although I suspect none of the proprietors are actually Jewish. With a large wood-burning oven, they make Montreal-style bagels. But you won't get them steaming hot from the oven. Though there was a constant stream of customers coming in, Nu Bugel, having just opened about 2 weeks ago, is not busy enough yet to keep the oven burning all the time.

However, the bagels hanging off wooden dowels were quite tasty. I got a few to go and a roasted chicken, baby spinach, and red onion marmalade ($6) for lunch. They had a nice bite, chewy yet crisp, with that distinctive sweetness of Montreal bagels. However, I would stick to more traditional toppings such as cream cheese or even the humble butter. The strong marmalade tended to overwhelm the bagel. For those who want good, fresh bagels without heading up-town or fighting the crush at St. Lawrence Market, Nu Bugel is a great addition. The wooden benches, old-timey decorations (typewriters, metal tools) harken back to a bygone era. So the modern all glass front space, where the firewood was stored, and separating a passerby from the main entrance, was jarringly off-putting.

A Mighty Wind

Tamara Lindeman, singer-songwriter of The Weather Station, has embarked on a series of duets with other singers. Friday night, they gathered at The Dakota Tavern for an intimate concert. Lindeman's own songs tend to be soft, introspective number. She started solo on her first tune, singing and playing her guitar quietly over the din. Amazingly, the crowd quieted down. Unlike most bar shows, there were no background chatter, and not even the clinking of pint glasses being cleared, during the two half-hour sets.

Her first duet, with Simone Schmidt (One Hundred Dollar) was thematically a propos. If You Sing With Me was a sweet song about two singers finding joy in performing together. Next was Misha Bower, with a Kate Bush-esque heart-broken tune with swooping harmonies (which apparently they couldn't practice over Skype because it mutes the other person, probably because of echo cancellation). And so the evening went, each complex song captured a snapshot in time or even a life (Matt Cully's Brothers and Sisters).

But it wasn't just duets. Lindeman was joined by Felicity Williams and Carleigh Aikins on a folkoric tune of 3-part harmonies and lyrical exchanges pondering the passage of time. There were also spontaneous last-minute additions. Before his own turn, Afie Jurvanen came on early to provide guitar backing for Williams and Aikens on their own duet. Ian Kehoe stuck around to play bass for Linderman and Ryan Driver. With most songs being on the downer side, she ended the evening with Steve Lambke doing a jazzy cover of If This World Were Mine.

It was a magical evening all about song-craft and music-making, like spending time in the living room of some very talented friends. Before the duets, Linderman read a prepared statement from her phone (she wryly noted she hadn't spoken this long since high school's public speaking). She described the introspective nature of writing songs and yet at the same time, they are performed in public for appreciative fans and indifferent crowd, both of which add their own dimension. She talked about bonding with other musicians in this endeavour, and the resulting impetus; namely, she wanted to spend more time with them, hence the duets. Tonight, a lucky hundred or so were immersed in these collaborations with the live debut of these beautiful songs.

Love In A Hopeless Palace

Thursday night, a trio of acts entertained a low-key Valentine's Day crowd at Lee's Palace. Bryce Jardine came on at 9:15. With a full band including 2 back-up singers, he played the sort of earnest, lightly paced pop that doesn't leave much impression.

The Most Loyals had more impact. Ranging from blue-grass (Poor Bruce), to country (What I learned from a poet), to a few songs with a heavier rock beat (I Have The Power), their 3-part harmonies got people clapping and stomping. Their specialty was slow, hurting songs that often repeated a phrase, giving them a traditional folk feel. But the crowd was undetered, and several slow dances took place.

It had thinned out a bit by the time Olenka and the Autumn Lovers came on stage, an excellent band from London who doesn't play Toronto too often. They played new material from their Hard Times EP (Hard Times, Don't Make Sense, Only Arms) which continued the quiet, despairing, country mood. Their older material were faster and often had Eastern European flavour including Go and Odessa. Olenka's songs often had odd time signatures and were augmented by a drummer who added jazz riffs and fills. They dedicated Flash In The Pan to two fans who had the song stuck in their heads. The set ended with two rock numbers Sparrow and Clean. For a quick encore, Olenka did a fun cover of Fleetwood Mac's You Make Loving Fun.

Franglais

On a Saturday night when the Montreal Canadiens lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-0, a mixed group of Anglos and Francos were down at the Rivoli not to argue about hockey, but to listen to Ariane Moffatt. Although it was a small crowd for the first act, it filled up quickly and people were turned away later in the evening.

Blood and Glass was first up. Fronted by Moffatt's backup singer, Lisa Iwanycki, this duo could be labeled electro gaze. The bassist spent his time fiddling with an array of pedals, synth machines, and drum samplers, hooked up to his bass which was used to generate most of the sound. Meanwhile, the keyboardist/singer often ran her voice through a vocoder hooked up to her synth. It was sparse, airy music about botoxed young girls and odd merry-go-rounds. The most radio-friendly song was the dance beat of Bad Dreams.

The Magic, from Guelph, played catchy 70s style funk full of falsettos and staccato guitar licks. Without the full band, the two brothers relied on drum machines and samplers to fill out the songs. This set-up emphasized their rockability; in their formal suits and retro-gear, they looked like young Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis, if these icons started their career in the cool 70s.

A veteran singer from Quebec (tonight's show was filmed by the French TV station TVA for a TV spot), Moffatt was comfortable talking and joking to both the French and English-speaking fans in the crowd. Her style was dance rock/pop, epitomized by her bassist's "key bass", an electric bass guitar with a small synth attached to the bottom. It was energetic hand-clapping music, which the raucous audience was more than willing to do throughout the show. Her bilingualism extended to the songs from her new album "Ma". For every Walls Of The World and Too Late, there was Mon corps and L'homme dans l'automobile. She did a lively cover of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill. But Moffat also included numerous hits from her French catalogue such as Le coeur dans la tête, Réverbère (which she joked was called River Beer in English), Dans un océan, and for the encore, a reggae-inflected Montreal.