Tal Wilkenfeld at The Horseshoe Tavern - Concert Pictures

Tal Wilkenfeld is an Australian musician; a bassist, guitarist, singer and songwriter. She has played with a who's-who of notable musicians, frequently in the world of jazz fusion. She's currently on tour opening for The Who and in between Who shows, she's been hosting her own headlining club shows. I caught one of those shows, at Toronto's Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, on February 29.

This show featured the biggest line-up of fans waiting to get in to the bar that I've ever seen at the Horseshoe. Even bigger than the line-up that I was in for one of The Hold Steady's Horseshoe Birthday shows. Fans were lined up through the club and out into the street on this cold night. Thanks to some friendly fans, I was able to wiggle up to the front to grab these pics.

Tal's band is as talented as you'd expect. Their drummer is monstrously fantastic, delivering a drum solo that I was thoroughly impressed with. Tal's keyboard player (the Price is right!) and guitarist are fantastic musicians as well. Their music is a tight amalgamation of many genres that all come across as dynamic and musical, walking the tightrope between virtuosity and tasteful, entertaining musicianship.

"Under the Sun" was highlighted as the newest song on the set list and she included "semi-familiar" tunes like Jeff Buckley's "Last Goodbye" and The Smiths "How Soon Is Now" in the set. She also pulled out the guitar for a couple of tunes, telling us that ​on her latest album she played whatever instrument she wrote the song on and some songs, such as "Love Remains" don't feel right if she's not playing guitar.

The band stretched their jamming chops several times, most notably on The Smiths "How Soon Is Now". I enjoyed ​how the set flowed between emotional, mellow songs alongside upbeat rockers. The whole package of Tal's talent and personality combined with the band's musicianship, the songs and the flow of the set came together into a great show.

Out on the internet, there is a lot of Tal's work with folks like Jeff Beck and Zappa Plays Zappa but not a lot of her solo material. She's just released the song "Corner Painter" from her forthcoming album. It's the song that she closed out her main Toronto Horseshoe Tavern set with. Give it a listen:

And here is Tal's rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel"

Ten years ago: Mystery Jets Making Dens

English indie rock band Mystery Jets' first album Making Dens came out ten years ago today. This album features a great amalgam of propulsive beats, great guitar playing, shifting dynamics and sometimes off-kilter song writing. It's a great, original twist on the pop song that's refreshing and alive.

Check out my favourite tunes:

"You Can't Fool Me Dennis"

"Purple Prose"

"The Boy Who Ran Away"

"Zootime"

"Diamond in the Dark"

Pic from Mystery Jets.

Fifteen years ago: Alien Ant Farm Anthology

California rockers Alien Ant Farm's Anthology came out fifteen years ago today. This album is notable because it came out when so many people were discovering social music sharing apps like the infamous Napster. The track "Movies" was a song that an anonymous user recommended to me. I listened and I liked. It was the first personal experience I had with the power of social music sharing and how recommendations can drive discovery in a real, effective and powerful way. The missing link, unfortunately, was the exchange of money for the music.

Making recommendations and sharing cool music has been part of my life since my early days borrowing records from the local public library, through high school, trading tapes, to my college radio show, to this web site. Alien Ant Farm is notable as being the first internet recommendation for me, personally. The challenge, of course, is how to make sharing recommendations work along with making sure that the artists that bring us joy, and others in the music industry who discover, produce, promote and indeed recommend music, get paid. That saga continues...

Here are a couple of prime tunes from Anthology, "Movies" and Alien Ant Farm's cover of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal".

Pic from Myspace.

Thirty years ago: Metallica Master of Puppets

Blue haze filled Maple Leaf Gardens for Metallica's show on the Master of Puppets Damage Inc. tour. The crowd was a sea of long hair, black leather and denim. It was all a little intimidating and very exhilarating. Metallica was at a huge high in terms of popularity for a thrash band. It was a show that I don't think I'll ever forget. I think I still have the shirt from this gig and maybe a poster. Unless they've mysteriously "disappeared".

This landmark album, that peaked at 29 on the Billboard 200 and was the first thrash metal album to go platinum, was a huge favourite of mine, and many others. Today the album celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of it's release.

In addition to spinning the vinyl relentlessly and attending the concert at Maple Leaf Gardens, I also remember getting the book of all the tab for this album and woodshedding to learn as much of it as I could. I love the power of the production, those riffs, the guitar tones, the crazy wah-wah guitar solos, the dynamic shifts, the disenfranchised youth lyrics, the frantic energy and pace; it was all perfect for a teenage metalhead me.

The full album:

And my absolute favourite tracks:

"Battery"

"Master of Puppets"

"Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"

"Damage Inc."

Pic from Metallica.

New music / video from Fast Romantics: Animal

Fast Romantics have a new full-length album on the way in 2016. Here's the video for the song "Animal" from that forthcoming album. It's an easy going and upbeat tune with a timeless quality, a cool piano line and great harmonies. They're playing The Horseshoe Tavern this Saturday night.