I've loved Partner since I first heard their music and witnessed their performance at Wavelength Festival back in 2016. Since then, I've seen them perform live many times. Most recently, it was their show opening for Wintersleep at Toronto's Danforth Music Hall. Click on through to check out my photos of Wintersleep's headlining show.
For this show, Partner was performing as a three piece with singer/guitarist Josée Caron in her usual role, Lucy Niles playing bass and a local drummer who I’ve seen in many bands holding down the beat. We heard older favourites like "Hot Knives", "The Ellen Page" and "Everybody Knows" alongside new songs like "Stoned Thought" and "Lost My Pick, Can I Borrow One?". They closed out with a cover of "Limelight" by Rush.
Toronto has lost some great music venues in recent years, like The Silver Dollar Room, and we've been waiting for literally years for another to open, like, say, the El Mocambo. In the meantime, Jasper Dandy is here and it made its mark with a three-week series of Friday-night concerts to celebrate. I was there for the first and third.
For the first night, we got Sam Coffey and The Iron Lungs who are easily one of my favourite bands. They were preceded by openers Wine Lips. Click through here to check out my photos of their set.
Sam and his band deal in rock. Hard rock. With amazing hooks and catchy choruses. You might call it power pop. It's probably my favourite genre, dating back to childhood discoveries of bands like Cheap Trick and later discoveries like Thin Lizzy. I have a funny feeling that Sam and his band listened to similar bands growing up.
They played a ton of my favourite tunes, and I found out something new about the band; they filmed the "First Time" video at Jasper Dandy. Check it out below. We got to hear a new song that sounded amazing. Can't wait for the new album.
There's a new live music venue in town and it's called Jasper Dandy. It's just down the street from Queen East live music institution the Opera House and it features a sports bar up front and live music venue in the back. I was there for the first and third nights of their grand opening celebrations.
Toronto's Wine Lips were the first band to hit the stage. The power trio played what I'd classify as classic, garage, psych, jam tunes. Basically good hard rock.
I love that elusive genre called power pop. Seattle's Telekinesis embody the spirit of that genre, with hook-filled guitar rock tunes with catchy choruses and upbeat attitude. I've seen Telekinesis a few times now and they never disappoint with their high-energy tunes.
The band is on the road celebrating the release of their most recent album, Effluxion. It's a more piano/keyboard driven album than Michael Benjamin Lerner's typical guitar-driven tunes. Which brings us to the unique complication of this show; their keyboard player couldn't cross the border into Canada because she didn't have her passport. Ooops. The band personified the old saying, "The show must go on!", learning some tunes during soundcheck and powering forward with a different set than they intended, but a great set.
They featured a bunch of my favourite tunes like "Wires", "Please Ask For Help", "Power Lines", and "Tokyo", as well as other great tunes from across the band's catalog. They even gave a special treat to a couple in the front row. Seems that they used "I Saw Lightning" as their wedding song and Michael was gracious enough to perform it for them. Quite a special moment.
You can check out my photos of Telekinesis from performances at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in 2015 and in 2013 by clicking here and here.
And check out my photos from Sontalk's awesome opening set.
Check out a bunch of my favourites from Telekinesis' setlist.
"A Place in the Sun"
"Courtesy Phone"
"Wires"
"Please Ask for Help"
"I Saw Lightning"
"Coast of Carolina"
"Power Lines"
"Tokyo"
And here's "Cut the Quick" from the new album, which they didn't play at the show:
I'm a recent Apple Music subscriber and I've been diving into its music discovery possibilities. Sontalk was one of the very first albums that popped up. I listened, I was impressed and I was pleasantly surprised to find them on the bill opening for Telekinesis at The Drake Hotel Underground in Toronto. Click here for my shots of Telekinesis' amazing set.
Nashville's Sontalk took to the stage and played us their emotive, passionate, driving and heartfelt songs. The live show impressed at least as much as that album that Apple Music presented me with. I loved it, would see them again in a heartbeat and would wholeheartedly recommend them.
Check out some tunes from their setlist and go see Sontalk live:
