Lithium Magazine

By Myles LaCavera
Photo by Walid Lodin

Some Canadians start their summer with the May long weekend, make the annual migration up to the family cottage.  Well I say that’s hog swill!  Apart from this past seasonal opener the weather is usually dreadfully cold, unpredictable at best, you lose valuable life hours crammed in a car with four of your closest buds, and the company may be great but the body odour on the way home isn’t.  In grand protest to our annual disappointment I have moved my official start of summer to the North by Northeast weekend.  A bizzillion bands at the best Toronto clubs all cutting their teeth on the indie scene for a measly fifty bucks.  You get to kick about the city, hit the cooling pavement on a Queen Street evening, chase the beacons of light along Spadina maybe on your way up to College or Bloor in pursuit of the band you gotta see, or in the off chance you’ll catch a band you’ve never heard of that transforms your night [insert cool Transformers sound right there if you like].  Hit the pubs you’re comfortable in, go somewhere you’ve always wanted to but never had an excuse to go before – who needs black flies and relentless down pour as you’re huddled and shivering in your tent to start the summer?

Thursday night and I was felt like home.  After a quick glance at the prospects for Thursday night I thought I’d mix the familiar with the unknown and head down to The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern.  Whether NXNE or CMW I always seem to end up at the ‘Shoe for at least one night and the opportunity to see Dinosaur Bones again was enough to get me through the door.  I paused for some street meat and swept into the back room to catch the tail end of Dinosaur Bones’ set.  They carried off the sonorous chimes of “Ice Hotels” effortlessly and eased into “N.Y.E’s” sad and soaring chorus with its palpitating keys.  Dinosaur Bones trim the sorrowful and brooding with musical silver linings, and Ben Fox and company make it all seem easy.  These guys are the perfect addition to anyone with The French Kicks’ Swimming, or Band of Horses’ Infinte Arms in their iTunes library.  The crowd had filled out in the final songs of their set and I was pleasantly surprised at the turn out for a Thursday night.  Dinosaur Bones were equally appreciative; Fox called out a couple of people who had been at the Hollerado “Nacho gig” that had come to see the band earlier that day and bid farewell.

The crowd change began as groups carried on to other venues to knock another band off their list but I stayed put.  I figured if Free Energy was going to come up all the way from Philadelphia I’d stick around and check them out.  Who would have known that while waiting for the band to take the stage I would nearly get knocked out by the make-out train.  Seriously.  Two lovely young civilians collided with Tasmanian Devil ferocity and became a whirling dervish of hot kiss that whisked across half of the room clearing all in its path.  I’m not sure but it may have been the camel pack on the dude’s back that my have thrown them off balance.  Free Energy, fortunately were clear of the love tornado and made it to the stage as scheduled.  Their lead singer clad in a badass Silver Age Batman tee the band took the crowd by surprise with their power pop guitar work replete with hammer-on leads and their after school special lyrics.  The crowd had swelled to near capacity during their set; some curious on lookers, others there for a spin on the linoleum.  Free Energy was certainly doing their namesake justice and as refreshing as it is to hear a band playing with a positive message, Free Energy played it a little too straight for my liking, and the crowd seemed polarized.  They did have two last songs though – awesome.  Check out “Bang Pop” for one of their better tracks.

One hit, one miss for the evening at that point but it wasn’t quite over yet.  I mulled over whether I should carry on to another venue but hung around as Warpaint set up stage.  A quartet of gals all the way from Los Angeles with a “happy to be here but a little tired from the road” look to them played through a jaw dropping set of post-punk jam revival.  Brief mercurial vocals best likened to Chan Marshall, swelling instrumentals, and a drummer focused on the task at hand, Warpaint was the surprise find of the night.  These girls have nothing but success to look forward to with dates coming at a couple major festivals this summer.  Proficient musicians remarkably in tune with each other’s meanderings and road tight, they are poised to make their mark and should be playing along side Sleepy Sun on a great little double bill.  Warpaint made my night.  Check out “Stars”, “Elephants” and “War Paint” for some shining examples. 

Well who knows what Friday will bring?

You can check out the bands I checked out here:

Dinosaur Bones http://www.myspace.com/dinosaurbonesband
Free Energy http://www.myspace.com/freeenergymusic
Warpaint http://www.myspace.com/worldwartour