November 27, 2016

The Darcys at Wayhome for the Holidays at The Phoenix Concert Theatre - Concert Pictures

The fine folks who give us such a great summer highlight in Wayhome Festival want to make sure we get through the cold winter months with dreams of next year's summer fest. They did so by putting on Wayhome for the Holidays at The Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto last Wednesday night.

The Darcys introduced their major genre shift from sprawling and intense art-rock and Steely Dan cover albums to Miami Vice neon pop with their gig at The Mod Club back in May. My pics from that show are here. Since then, they've been riding high on the success of super-catchy 80s tinged single "Miracle" and their brand spanking new album Centrefold, which came out at the beginning of November.

They were down to the core duo for this gig which showed off their catchy, hook-filled and danceable tunes with copious 80s nods for a full Phoenix Concert Theatre crowd. The crowd was longing for the summer days of Wayhome, the hot Pacific breezes of San Diego in 1988 and from the actions of some folks near me, almost-unbridled passion was in the air.

We did get a couple glimpses at The Darcys of old, with "The River" and their cover of Steely Dan's "Josie" from their full-album cover of Aja. They remarked on 2016 and how it's been a year of tragic rock star deaths, including Prince. They broke into a cover of "Purple Rain" and I thought, wow, this is an ambitious tune to cover. Well, they only gave us a taste by limiting themselves to the first verse an chorus. The rest of the set focused on Centrefold and finished off with an encore of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" before we shuffled out into the drizzly fall night.

With The Darcys' solid set along with Bear Mountain's dance party and The Beaches' rock, it was a great night of tunes that makes us look forward to next summer's Wayhome Festival.

Check out some Darcys tunes below.

Photos by B. Hartling.

"Miracle"

"San Diego, 1988"

"Coming Up for Air"

"Josie"

"Studio City"

"The River"

"Black Diamond"

"Lip Service"