More Than Meets The Eyes

I was rushing to get to Fleck Dance Theatre on Friday night. The Greenwood bus was as bad as transit in Ottawa and my allocated 1-hour was barely enough. This was DanceWorks' first recital since they had shut down for the pandemic. As such, I thought there would be a full crowd but it was only about 40% full. Toronto missed out on a great show.

Fila 13 Productions came from Montreal to present Lina Cruz's Morphs. The title seemed to have two meanings. The first was about transformation or metamorphosis. The most obvious was when a male dancer was strapped into an evening dress while his female compatriot strutted around with a LED-lit cod piece. But throughout the show, things and people changed: clothes get re-purposed, props are manipulated into different configurations, dancers contorted into various shapes to suddenly burst out with sharp, staccato choreography. The second was about snippets of sounds and words (morpheme). In addition to pre-recorded sounds, an older gentleman provided percussion by tapping on objects, played a piano, sang several numbers (Radeau Médusé, Ferré's La Lune). But the dancers also knocked on the stage, clapped rhythmically, and harmonized song snippets.

With mismatched costumes of jutting pads or clear, plastic helmets that glowed, the show reminded me of an apocalyptic Mad Max but set in the gentler future of Station Eleven. They could have been a troupe here to entertain us with props made from the detritus of the 21st century. It was a fun show, lacking the seriousness of some contemporary recitals in Toronto. There was something French or Montreal about its whimsy. One of my favourite blink-and-you-missed-it was a performer's laughs that became for a few bars the famous Queen of The Night aria.

Mommy Dearest

Though there weren't too many East End venues, my sublet was actually convenient for several larger theatres. So it was a short street-car ride on Thursday night to get to The Phoenix. It is slated for condo redevelopment so there may not be too many shows left in its future. While waiting in a line, a young woman told her friends that she had skipped on a show Wednesday to be "responsible" (budget reasons?) but maybe the singer will return in a year or two. Despite Toronto being one of the top music destinations in the world, depending on that musician's circumstances, they may never return (so yolo).

I was at the back for opener Zoon. It was an atmospheric, grungy garage sound with higher-pitched male alto. From the cheering, they had some fans. In fact, it was pretty full for the early set. But I was able to get much closer by using a secret from my experience at previous shows. If you head to the left side of the room, there are enough spaces between (not as tightly packed) people that you'll end up only 2-3 metres from stage left. It wasn't until I snuck back just before the encore that I realized how close I was compared to the folks in the rear watching behind hundreds of people.

Soccer Mommy (Sophia Allison) started as a bedroom-pop musician but quickly became the face of the genre with several top reviews. She has come a long way from playing a solo set or to a sparse crowd. An almost capacity crowd hung onto her every words and often sang along. Most songs got a loud cheer with the first chord intro. Her newer numbers did have more propulsion than older hits like Still Clean thanks to the drummer.

Like last night's show, this will likely be my final encounter with Soccer Mommy for the same reason: their style of wistful confessional music does not sound great to me in a big venue. Also, two sets of mostly mid-tempo songs had me nodding off on my feet. But plenty of people tonight thought differently. Given how incredible Thao's performance was to about 50 people, I think that 20 times (or 30 times for Men I Trust) that number tonight would have loved (and added so much to) her high-energy set.

Play Through

Just before Wednesday night's concert, I went back to Little India. There were 3 "Desi burger" places next to each other and I wanted to try the middle one. Lahore Chaat's site claimed that their hours started noon but last time I ended up at Leela's because they were closed.

I ordered an aloo burger ($3.49) and 2 samosas ($0.99/each). The burger was tasty but messy. I liked it more than most plant-based patties because they included cumin/curry in their aloo. Added to that a slathering of chutney and you had something that tasted different than your typical dry veggie burger. The samosas were run-of-the-mill but quite filling for the price. In fact, at $6 (all-in no tax), this was an excellent cheap eats. Unfortunately, I asked the waitstaff directly about their hours and they didn't open until 4 pm.

Originally scheduled for a single night at the 800-capacity Phoenix 2 years ago, Men I Trust was now doing 2 shows at the 1500-capacity Danforth Music Hall. The opener, Tess Roby, had a deep voice that reminded me of Kaili Kinnon. Her band's synth-y loops and Roby's lyrical imagery evoked a modern-day Kate Bush. Men I Trust started with a driving Tailwhip. In fact, those who associate them with chill vibes might be surprised by how bopping their music can be complete with extended guitar solos (which got plenty of cheers). But there were plenty of slow numbers (Sugar, Lucky Sue), too. Their two encores was the popular Show Me How and the rocking Say Can You Hear.

I felt a bit sad at the end because this was likely my last show with Men I Trust. It wasn't because they now have fans lining up 30-deep for merch at 7:30 pm. But as the (touring) band grows and they move from The Horseshoe to bigger and bigger venues, their songs don't translate well to live anymore. The clean bass, wobbly synth, and Emma's shimmery guitar chords sounded like thumping, muddy indie pop. It's better to bid farewell to a band on a high note instead of trying to keep hanging on.

I walked to the venue to check out more East End neighbourhoods. There were cute houses on Myrtle and Strathcona. But the area around Blake was a bit bleak. It wasn't just the dense number of old apartment tenements in this public-housing neighbourhood. There were also numerous row houses, all bricks and tiny windows. I've never seen such unusual (and grim) construction that discouraged outdoor socializing. Kempton Howard Park at the end of the street was cheerier. It faced an old Jewish cemetery. Blake is completely surrounded by wealthier neighbours whom I'd guess would not venture into the area.

It's a Hard-Knock Life

Tuesday night was my first visit to Crow's Theatre at Dundas and Carlaw, one of the few theatres in the East End. It was a spacious space, complete with a bar/music stage. It was good to see a main-floor tenant of a condo other than a pharmacy or a bank. The theatre area was also a good size and can seat several hundred people. Tonight was the 1st night (preview) of George F. Walker's Orphans for the Czar, a title appropriate for our times.

We were back in Tsar-ist Russia, where two orphans Vasley (Paolo Santalucia) and Rayisha (Shayla Brown) eked out poor, "peasant" lives. Rayisha was still hopeful but Vasley thought her blindness shielded her from the reality that there was nothing beautiful in the world. He was then sent to Petersburg to live with a book-seller only known as Master (Eric Peterson).

The living situation for the masses there wasn't any better. Revolution was in the air and in the thoughts two frequent visitors to the bookshop: bourgeois sisters Olga (Michelle Mohammed) and Maya (Shawna Thompson). Meanwhile, Makarov (Patrick McManus) managed a network of Czarist spies including violent henchman Sasha (Kyle Gatehouse). It was clear to them that people who read books full of foreign ideas needed a close watch.

Vasley spent his days catering to the whims of Master and supplying him with young women, and after being beaten by Sasha, spying for Makarov. Another villager Yakov (Christopher Allen), who had later also brought Rayisha to the city, worked in a factory full of subversive dissidents. Then everything exploded (literally).

It was an interesting play with parallels to our current times between people fomenting unrests and government crackdowns. Back then though, it was clearer who was the "bad guy" when it came to the people vs the elites. The language was in modern vernacular (which often elicited laughs) but characters sometimes spoke dialectically to each other which I bounced off hard.

Side note: I walked through various laneways to get to the Theatre and passed by an old, fenced-in Jewish cemetery (Holy Blossom) behind a rec centre. On the way back, I mostly walked down Dundas St. E. Between Bermount and Jones, I saw something I've never seen in Toronto. The houses had their backyard and garage facing the street (their entrances were on side streets) as opposed to being tucked behind them in garage lanes. So that block of Dundas felt hostile with a suburban-through-street feel since there were no "housing", just fences and garage doors.