Dear Rouge are a super-fun band. Singer Danielle McTaggart takes command of the stage and you can't help but keep your eyes glued to her as you sing the hooks and dance like mad on a summer night. That's what we all did when Dear Rouge performed at The Ex this past summer.
This was actually my second time shooting the band. My pics from their performance at Riverfest Elora are here.
I loved the big hits in the set like "Black and Gold" and my personal favourite "Tongues" mixed in with new songs that sounded great with big choruses and giant hooks. I'm looking forward to hearing the new tunes as they're released.
They also brought out Zach from The Zolas to do a cover of Bowie's "Let's Dance" during the encore.
Another of my favourite bands, The Zolas, played the CNE Bandshell stage at The Ex this past summer. You could describe their set as a greatest hits set since they're working on new songs and they were opening for Dear Rouge for this gig.
I always love a Zolas show and this one was no different. Hope you like the pics, and the set list of tunes below. If you haven't seen the band live, I highly suggest that you do. It's always a great time singing along and dancing to their tunes.
I Mother Earth are easily one of my favourite bands. The Canadian hard rockers produced some of my favourite tunes when they released Dig and I used to rock out to tunes like "Rain Will Fall" at The Phoenix on Saturday nights. Their next album Scenery and Fish would become a desert island classic for me. I love every inch of the innovative and alternative rock they produced. Music that's sprinkled with interludes that never veered into prog-rock pomposity and that's energized by latin percussion, not to mention the band's massive musicianship. As I described it in my post on the album's twentieth, "The guitar playing is unique and addictive, Edwin's vocals are unparalleled and the rhythm section propels the band forward as though rocket powered while keeping the groove intact."
Since they've gotten back with original singer Edwin, I've seen them twice. First at the anniversary show for Scenery and Fishat The Phoenix (click through for those photos), and then this past summer at The Ex. Both times they were incredible and I'd see them anytime, pretty much anywhere.
Their set was wall-to-wall highlights and favourite tunes and it's a wonder I got any photos as I rocked out and sang along in the photo pit. The interlude in "Another Sunday" featured amazingly intricate and groovy percussion, incendiary guitar work, and soaring vocals. IME produce such a unique sound; bringing rock musicianship up several levels. "Earth, Sky and C" featured a natural highlight with a monarch butterfly landing on the bass and hanging out for a good while.
They finished up the main set with perhaps the first IME song I ever heard, "Rain Will Fall", followed by an encore of "Levitate". The only thing we could have wished for was more.
Here are my favourite tunes from the band's amazing set. Ok, so it's their entire set. I love this band!
The Watchmen are another of those great, favourite bands from the heady days of the early 90s. I remember seeing these guys so many times back then. Visions of them on The Horseshoe stage are probably most vivid. They are a super solid band with hard rocking yet melodically strong songs. The clear and strong vocals along with innovative guitar work and a solid rhythm section, not to mention the fantastic and still-incredible songs, made them an enduring favourite.
At their show this past summer at The Ex when they opened for another favourite band, I Mother Earth, I remarked that they sounded so good. It made me so happy to see the band and hear these songs coming off of the stage again. I have such amazing memories of their music including their A Capella rendition of James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James" and a specific show that I think was at the old Concert Hall. I loved that they mixed in a cover of The Clique's tune "Superman". You know, the one that everyone thinks is an REM song, in "Absolutely Anytime".
I would love to see the band again before too many more years pass, and hopefully in a headlining capacity so we can hear more of the great tunes.
Michel Pagliaro is a Montreal classic rock survivor who played The Ex this past summer with one of my favourite bands, The Box, opening. He and his band rocked us all with his classic tunes.
