Missed Connection

Tuesday night, I dropped by The Storefront Theatre to watch comedic play "CLAIRE, from the bus" (Kjartan Hewitt) produced by LIARS co. Ralph (Ennis Esmer) and Lemmy (Mayko Nguyen), two underemployed "creatives", are in a long-term relationship. The play opens in his apartment on the morning of his 31st birthday. He wants them to hang out with his friends at local pub The Station. She, not being particularly fond of his friends or their routines, has decided to attend instead a pot-luck being organized by her community-theatre director Donovan.

Feeling out of sorts at her snub and their stagnant rut ("I think she's only seeing me because she doesn't know how to stream TV shows off the Internet"), Ralph talks to his motor-mouth, hound-dog friend Donald (David Reale) whose advice goes from bad to worse. This shouldn't have surprised Ralph as Donald's current pitch is a club song called "My Thumb In Your Bum". On the way home on the Ossington bus, Ralph notices a possibly under-age girl named Claire (Bryn McAuley). Thus starts a chat that evolves into on-line flirtation which leads to a disastrous encounter at his place.

This is a hilarious play with an affectionate understanding of contemporary characters: theatre majors arguing over 1st year crit lit, 30-something geeks debating Blue-Ray vs DVD and hipster culture. The projection of text messaging, a crucial technology in the plot as well as the source of quite a few laughs, onto a side wall is a clever way to incorporate it into a live show. All the actors have a great time with the natural dialogue but Reale stole the show as the side-kick lacking any sort of filter between brain and mouth. At just over an hour, this would be a perfect, little gem except for a few unrealistic premises; it's pure male fantasy the idea of a sexually aggressive yet whimsical younger woman. This is practically Manic Pixie Dream Girl territory.

Lucky Thirteen

All week, the 13th annual Wavelength festival of indie music has been playing. I had it on my radar but always chose another event: mostly because I have seen a fair number of these bands. With a free gap Sunday night, I finally went to The Garrison for Wavelength's last show.

A small crowd heard electro-drone Castle If/Cell Memory ran through their 2-song set. Both songs were primarily instrumental, driven by a repeating bass track, layered guitar effects, and furious drumming. This might be good music to zone out, but as a live act there wasn't enough performance to hold much interest. It was 3/4 full when Legato Vipers took to the stage. They were also all instrumental, but were more fun. Their set comprised of short, punchy surf-rock but re-invented with modern aesthetics. One downside was the loosy-goosiness, a few songs had missed cues and ended raggedly.

Legato Vipers were joined by The Harlettes, a medley of 4 burlesque dancers. After a group shimmy on the first number, they each had a solo strip-tease spaced throughout the set. Though all wore vintage clothes and hair, Rouge La Rouge with her flaming hair epitomized the classic pin-up girl.

A packed house welcomed re-united-for-one-night local indie darling Henri Faberge and The Adorables. It was an energetic set, with everyone singing, dancing, and clapping (though mostly the performers and not the stand-offish Toronto crowd). At one point, Henri ripped off his shirt to show a hirsute chest, running and dancing and screaming through the crowd. The songs were a fun mix of cabaret-pop, thematically progressing from boy-arrives-in-big-city, boy-stalks-girl, boy-meets-girl, girl-dumps-boy, boy-throws-fit.

There have been some online controversy about the sound quality at these shows. I wasn't surprised as a few of them took place at The Garrison, a venue with generally terrible sound. It was poor tonight, but most egregious during The Adorables' set. Heavy on the drum and bass guitar, Dr. Ew's guitar and Robin Hatch's keyboard were barely audible. Though Henri's vocals were clear, it apparently made perfect sense to mix the others at about 20%. None of the harmonies could be heard and considering that Maylee Todd, Laura Barrett, and Dana Snell are now solo singers, what a waste. Julianne Wilding might as well have not bothered to sing at all.

Though other acts were slated on the bill including The Magic and Cookie Duster, there was no point subjecting myself to further bad sound.

All Your Base

With a light snow falling on Toronto Saturday night, I arrived at The Annex Live for some synth-pop. The space was cozy and amazingly clean, even the bathrooms. Unfortunately, the sound set-up was sub-par. They didn't have enough mics for both singers and instruments.

First up was Kashka, a synth-pop new venture from Kat Burns, formerly of Forest City Lovers. Her duo sang catchy beat-driven pop but with metaphorical lyrics and a good dose of jangly guitars and sonic effects. But tonight's muddled sound mix masked Burns' vocals and gave too much emphasis to the drum sampler.

The main act was Chicago's Advance Base. I had previously seen Owen Ashworth several years ago on his final tour as Casio Tone For The Painfully Alone: a one-man mix-master of a plethora of electronic equipment, singing sad, melancholic numbers. In this incarnation, he still uses some samplers, but concentrated mainly on his vintage synth. Sadly, this gave them an amateurish quality: like listening to pre-programmed sample songs from low-end keyboards. But his strength was his lyrics, and they remain trenchant. To that end, he gave us sharply observed snapshot of ordinary lives, often lonely, unmoored, and estranged. A bemusing amount seemed to have been inspired (by his admission) by watching horror movies: An American Werewolf In London, The Omen, and The Exorcist. The set was book-ended by two songs about Christmas, one set in Oakland, the other in Milwaukee, neither of which offered much cheery "Holiday spirit".

All Singing (No Dancing)

Inspired by the group singing at The Weather Station Duets, I wanted to do some myself. But outside of Karaoke, there weren't too many other choices. So on a snowy Saturday night, I dropped by Ahimsa Yoga in the Annex for my first Kirtan. This devotional singing of Indian mantras is part of Bhakti Yoga.

Led by Lana Sugarman on harmonium, accompanied by an electronic shruti, a bassist and percussionist, 20 people spent about two hours in a call-and-response. The mantras weren't hard to pick up, as they are repeated for 10 minutes with variations in melody and phrasing. As each song progressed, the bassist would start to improvise, and people added harmony to the mix. Between songs, everyone sat in silence and absorbed the practice.

It was a great session, though both the pronunciation and melodies were undoubtedly Western. The last song, when all instruments fell silent, leaving the room to resonate with a cappella singing was particularly wonderful. It's no wonder that many people join religious or church choirs, even if they don't practice the faith.