On An On from Minneapolis, Minnesota have been opening for Yukon Blonde on tour. They played Toronto's Lee's Palace on February 25 and 26 for YB's sold out shows. I caught them on Friday night.
I liked their wide ranging dynamics from moody flowing melodies to driving beats with an emotional edge. They got a great response from the local audience, who cheered and sang along with gusto.
On February 25 and 26, Yukon Blonde headlined sold out shows at Toronto's Lee's Palace. I attended the Friday night show and grabbed these shots of the band during their triumphant and rousing show. The band's fans packed Lee's for this show in celebration of the Yukon Blonde's most recent release On Blonde.
Yukon Blonde's set was packed with awesome tunes from all of their albums, 2010's self-titled début, 2012's Tiger Talk and last year's On Blonde. This was my first time seeing the band headlining and their sound and presence was everything I knew it would be; lots of power and energy with the sublime melodies that they deliver so effortlessly on record.
Their set opened to the sound of David Lee Roth's isolated vocal track from "Runnin' With The Devil". From there, standout tracks for me included powerful opening tune "My Girl", "Saturday Night", "Radio", "I Wanna be your Man", and incredible set closing tune "Stairway".
For the encore, the band returned to the stage for a great rendition of David Bowie's "Suffragette City". Then they brought On An On to the stage to join them for a cool version of Bowie's "Let's Dance" including perfect beer bottle percussion. What a fitting and timely way to close out a great show.
Here are some of my favourite Yukon Blonde songs from their set.
Cherry Glazerr are a four-piece band from LA. They played The Danforth Music Hall in Toronto on Feburary 22 opening for Summer is Forever II featuring Wavves and Best Coast. They did a great job warming up the crowd as they filed in to catch the main event.
Cherry Glazerr play fun, energetic alt rock. Their recorded output features mostly short, efficient tunes with a slacker/shoegaze vibe. I enjoyed the good amount of dynamic variance between tunes; fast head bobbers mixed with mid tempo tunes. The band got more energetic as the crowd got more into it towards the end of their set.
Check out some of Cherry Glazerr's music:
"White's Not My Color This Evening"
"Trick or Treat Dancefloor"
"Teenage Girl"
"Had Ten Dollaz", "Haxel Princess", "Nurse Ratched" and "Bloody Bandaid" Live on KEXP
ChvrchesEvery Open Eye was a favourite of mine (album and songs) last year and their tour stop in Toronto was a definite highlight. They continue to leverage that great album with the release of a medievally classy and beautiful video for the amazingly uplifting tune "Clearest Blue". They'll be back in Ontario for Wayhome in a few months.
Ron Hawkins, one of my favourite singer / songwriters and one of the best songwriters that Canada has ever produced, has a new album called Spit Sputter and Sparkle on the way. We can hear the slide-guitar laden and beautifully crafted tune "Beautiful Girl" right now.
Ron tells us, "Can't believe it's that time again but the new record Spit Sputter and Sparkle comes out March 25th on Pheromone Recordings. I'll be celebrating the release with 3 shows at the Rivoli with the Do Good Assassins on Thursday April 14th, Friday April 15th and Saturday April 16th. Full band shows with killer openers Towers."
Lykki Li is one of those artists who have something magical within them. The songs she writes and how she delivers them are startlingly unique, yet accessible, emotional and likeable. Her second album Wounded Rhymes came out five years ago today.
These are my favourite songs from this amazingly special album. I love the melodies, the flow of the songs and the way Li delivers them. I especially the live delivery of several of these songs as captured on Austin City Limits, which I've embedded below. Lykke Li holds another entry on the list of artists that I really, really want to see in concert. Last time she was in Toronto, it was the same night as another show.
I really got into Wavves with their most recent album V. I enjoyed their previous output, but it all came together for me with V. The album came in at number 6 on my Favourite Albums of 2015 list and both "Pony" and "Way Too Much" appeared on my Favourite Songs of 2015 list.
Wavves played Toronto's Danforth Music Hall last night with Best Coast and Cherry Glazerr for the second Summer Is Forever tour. I figured based on their songs and attitude on record that they'd be a fun band to see live. Fortunately I was right.
They hit up "Pony" near the beginning of the set, but not so early that I was preoccupied photographing the band and would miss out on truly enjoying the tune. They played us tunes from across their discography, including tunes from the GTA 5 soundtrack and a split 7" with tour-mates Best Coast called "Dreams Of Grandeur". I've included my favourites below.
The band gave tons of energy and got lots back from the rowdy crowd up front. I enjoyed hearing their heavy-handed pop tunes live and joined them in wishing that summer truly was forever.
Best Coast are on tour with Wavves for the second Summer Is Forever tour. They played Toronto's Danforth Music Hall last night with Cherry Glazerr opening things up. I think that Best Coast are a fantastic band and I've missed out on seeing them live for way too long, including their show at NXNE last summer, so I was pretty excited to catch this show.
The band sounded great and Bethany's voice sounded true and powerful. The great vibe was not lost on the band as at one point in the latter half of the set, Bethany remarked that the energy was great for a Monday, and then she corrected herself, that it was great energy by any measure. It seemed that Best Coast and Toronto had formed a mutual admiration society for good reason. The crowd was super into the show, having a great time, while the band delivered an awesome-sounding set of fantastic tunes.
Check out some of my favourite tunes from their setlist.
