CMW 2015 Tuesday Round Up!
Tuesday night we were back out in the city taking in the Canadian Music Week festivities… and we went exploring!
We started at The Cameron House (408 Queen St W), moved on to The Hideout (484 Queen St W), then to Cherry Cola’s (200 Bathurst St), and finally to The Dakota Tavern (249 Ossington Ave) before calling it a night and heading home to rest up for Wednesday night!
It was another night of discovery as we saw performances from 5 acts we’d never seen before, and wouldn’t mind seeing again. And that’s always a nice bonus.
Tuesday Night’s CMW Entertainment
Cyprian (The Cameron House)
The GTs (The Hideout)
TV Sets (Cherry Cola’s)
Chasing Jane (The Dakota Tavern)
Whale Eye (The Dakota Tavern)
Let’s go…
Cyprian
Making their CMW debut, this Toronto band took to the back room stage at the Cameron House ready to rumble.
Cyprian is a 3 dude act with a guitar, bass, and drums – exactly what you’d expect, plus a little backing track action thrown in the mix.
Certainly not afraid of volume, these hometown boys played their rock ‘n’ roll. They’re billed as Alternative/Garage/Indie in the official CMW guide, and that’s pretty spot on.
While there was a little bit of a “happy to be here” vibe in the way they spoke between songs and at the end of the set, Cyprian is a band that we could certainly see again in future years at CMW. More shows and more songs and more experience is only going to make them stronger.
The GTs
Visiting from Montreal for CMW 2015, The GTs (Paul Trudel & Samantha Diamond) were up on The Hideout stage to showcase their 2-piece rock and roll on Tuesday night.
In a classy touch, Paul dedicated the 1st song of their set to his mom, who came in from Montreal to see the band play. Very sweet. Happy early Mother’s Day.
Labelled as Alternative/Garage/Indie, The GTs played fast and fun, but not so fast that you couldn’t keep up with the lyrics or the song. This was uptempo rock that was fun to listen to and understand. I dug it.
note: They mentioned barn rehearsals leading up to the show. And to be honest, that sounds like a lot of fun, wish we could have been there for that.
Paul also intro’d the song Bad by telling the crowd that the last time they were in Toronto they had dedicated it to Rob Ford… and then asked if he was still around. There was no resounding answer from the crowd – but the song was fun.
Bon job, Paul & Samantha.
TV Sets
TV Sets label themselves as lo-fi, bedroom pop – and after seeing them at Cherry Cola’s on Tuesday night, that makes some sense.
The Toronto trio mixes together an electro-pop sound with mellowed out pop lyrics that combine to give you a song that you can both tap your feet to at a steady pace, and also listen to the lyrics, 1 line at time, to soak it all in. It’s a solid juxtaposition that we have no beef with at all.
The 2 voices on stage play together, and off of each other nicely. Another added bonus, because who doesn’t love it when the voices in your music sound pretty?
All said and done, TV Sets can really continue to do what they’re doing, evolve, expand, whatever they want really – they’re making music that works, and we’re pretty certain you’ll see their names again.
Chasing Jane
Admittedly, we only caught the very tail end of the Chasing Jane set at The Dakota Tavern… BUT, if the crowd reaction to their finale was any indication, they did a pretty swell job Tuesday night.
With a 4 piece set-up, these Toronto Blues/Funk/Rockers brought a lot of energy with them, as evidenced by the constant movement and sweat on stage.
note: The hip-hop style lyrics we heard, paired with their uptempo rock sound made it easy to see why they’ve shared the stage with USS in the past.
The 3 voices up on stage worked well together, and with the loud instrumental being laid down. Where 1 voice may have been washed out, the 3 microphones worked well in the room and kept the lyrics from being overpowered.
Good on ya boys.
Whale Eye
Wrapping up our Tuesday night (we could have been out later, but there’s a lot of week left to cover) was Whale Eye, also at The Dakota Tavern.
The solo project of Dylan Turner (who has a great beard) is a stripped down, acoustic, singer-songwriter, folk, rock sound that was probably exactly what the doctor ordered for us.
As lovers of that acoustic sound, Whale Eye offers strong vocals that filled the Dakota while accompanied by the guitar… and here’s a shout out to Midnight Vista who lent Dylan an acoustic after some early tuning issues.
The strong lyrics of Whale Eye are well written and uncomplicated. An underrated combination in too much music, where you might get 1, but not both. Plus, the room was full of foot tapping and swaying and dancing – always a good sign.
We grabbed a download card for the Whale Eye EP before we left, and look forward to listening to that… and seeing Dylan Turner’s Whale Eye again.
Stay tuned for more from Canadian Music Week… and Be Awesome!
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