The Soul Motivators at Lee's Palace - Concert Photos

There are a few musical things that always excite my musical feelings. Powerful beats with tons of groove. Funky bass hitting hard on the one. Syncopated beats mixing with funky guitars and keys. And a horn section. Damn. A horn section always gets my ears happy.

Toronto funk outfit The Soul Motivators had me with the horn section, kept me with the funky grooves, keyboard and guitar shine, and then did the slam-dunk with Shahi Teruko's powerful vocals and magnetic presence. The Soul Motivators are a band with a ton of soul. Layered on top of that is a  a powerful singer/crowdpleaser/motivator/cheerleader.

On this night we all celebrated the release of the band's newest album, Do the Damn Thing. All I can say is the songs both new and older sound amazing from the opening grooves all the way through the set closer of "Do the Damn Thing" to the encore closing tune of their funked-up version of The Stones' "Gimme Shelter".

The Soul Motivators gave me exactly what I needed. And the rest of the Lee's Palace crowd seemed to feel the same way. I can't wait to see them again.

Tush opened up this great night of music. Check out my photos and thoughts on their set right here.

Check out some of The Soul Motivators' music:

"Do the Damn Thing"

"Mindblastin'"

"Until the Sun Goes Down"

"Gravy Train"

"Free to Believe"

"Love Thing"

Lowest of the Low at The Danforth Music Hall - Concert Photos

I've been a huge fan of The Lowest of the Low since before their groundbreaking debut album Shakespeare My Butt was released. The band has just released their latest album Agitpop and played a show at The Danforth Music Hall to celebrate. Ace of Wands opened the show. Check out my photos of their set here.

Agitpop features all the hallmarks of a great Lowest of the Low or Ron Hawkins album -  driving beats, great hooks, big choruses, thought-provoking, empowering and relevant themes and lyrics - mixed in with fresh flourishes like horns and a ska-influenced tune.

In addition to a whole bunch of tunes from Agitpop, we heard classics like "Pistol", "For the Hand of Magdalena", "Salesmen Cheats and Liars", "City Full of Cowards", "Bit", "Kinda the Lonely One", "4 O’Clock Stop", "Henry Needs a New Pair of Shoes" with some of The Clash's "Bank Robber", "Eternal Fatalist", and main set closer "Bleed a Little While Tonight". Before that last song, Ron brought up the recently and dearly departed local music icon Dave Bookman and stated for all of us that we'll keep doing the things that Dave told us to do until he tells us to stop.

The main set was followed by an encore of "Black Monday" with Ron and Lawrence, "Concave" with the addition of horns, a love song from Agitpop called "When She Falls", and of course, "Rosy and Grey". For that last song, the Low was joined by Ace of Wands. Fiddle and horns turned out to be excellent additions to this classic fan favourite.

I've been lucky enough to photograph Lowest of the Low a few times over the years. Check out my photos of them at Lee's Palace, at The Danforth Music Hall, at Toronto's Festival of Beer and at TURF.

I've concentrated on the LotL "classics" in my previous coverage, and so for this post, and to celebrate the release of the band's brand new album Agitpop, I'll focus on newer tunes. Check out the band's YouTube page too, because it's got some cool clips with the background stories on the new album's songs.

"Something to Believe In"

"Love 'N' Justice"

"Power Lines"

"New Wave Action Plan"

"The Barricade"

"Permanent Revolution"

Spoons at The Great Hall - Concert Photos

Since forming in Burlington Ontario in 1979, Spoons have been creating uplifting, entertaining and lasting, classic, new wave tunes. I've loved them since I first heard them in my early years and I continue to love the music they produced and continue to produce.

This show at Toronto's Great Hall was in celebration of the release of their latest album New Day New World. Singer songwriter guitarist Gordon Deppe made a deal with us early on; they'd play the classics but they'd play the new tunes, too. True to their word, we got an excellent set featuring the new and the classic in good proportions.

They opened with a bunch of new tunes before launching into crowdpleasers "Nova Heart" and "Arias and Symphonies". Bassist and vocalist Sandy Horne's daughter Alexa joined the band on stage to sing backups on "Paint By Numbers Day" from the new album. As we were reminded that they've been making great music for forty years, we heard more classics like "Romantic Traffic", "Old Emotions", "Tell No Lies" and their updated version of "Nova Heart". For an encore, we heard "Bridges Over Borders" with a bit of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" and "End of Story".

Former muchmusic VJ Michael Williams spun classic 80s tunes to get the crowd warmed up before Spoons took to the stage.

Check out some of my favourite Spoons tunes from their setlist, and if you haven't seen them, check out my coverage of other Spoons shows at The Bandshell at The Ex in 2018, at The Bandshell at The Ex in 2016 and on The Midway Stage at The Ex in 2014.

"New Day New World"

"Nova Heart"

"Arias and Symphonies"

"Romantic Traffic"

"Old Emotions"

"Tell No Lies"

Marlon Chaplin at The Piston for the release of The Circle - Concert Photos

I caught Toronto singer-songwriter Marlon Chaplin and his killer band at The Piston as we celebrated the his latest release, The Circle. It was a great introduction to what has quickly become one of my favourite new releases of 2018.

Quite Nice opened things up with their harmonious and easy going tunes. Check out my pics of them here.

Marlon and the band took to the stage, starting off with a collection of powerful tunes, mostly from The Circle. They brought the dynamics down in the middle of the set, shedding band members from the stage as the songs got more intimate and introspective. Of course, they brought things back into full swing for act three of the set, highlighting more strong songs from The Circle. Over the course of the main set, we heard the entirety of the new release, plus great songs from Marlon's first release Wanderer by Trade and singles "Fossils" and "Annabelle + Someone". Finishing up with an encore of "In Stars" from Wanderer by Trade was a perfect closure for the set.

The Circle is a powerful album and this show was a great showcase for the new release and Marlon's past catalogue. The Circle is a diverse collection of tunes showing the breadth and depth of Marlon's songwriting, musical vision and performing talent. The harder edged songs are direct and impactful with layers of emotion, sophistication and melody; the softer songs rich, lush and tender; and The Circle covers plenty of ambitious, dynamic ground in between.

This was my fourth Marlon Chaplin show. Check out my photos from his show at NXNE 2018, NXNE 2017 and Lee's Palace in 2016 by clicking through the links.

Please check out some of Marlon's great tunes:

"Drain Me"

"Annabelle + Someone"

"Fossils"

"Take Me There"

"Danger, Danger"

"Elevation"

"Carmeline"

"In Stars"