Moon King - This Toronto duo is showing four phases of the moon tonight as they have a drummer and guitarist/keyboardist augmenting their stark approach of two vocalists with one or two guitars going between them. It is a challenging night for them as only seven people are here marking yet another poorly attended show after so many others that exceeded my expectations. Maybe it is just a random occurrence, although the steady rain tonight may have a little something to do with it. Although the band is young, they were quite savvy in dealing with it by just plowing ahead with their music, not spending much time between songs with patter and pauses, but keeping it flowing. And that worked to the advantage of their churning psyche riffs which mixed dark post punk and lighter pop moves depending on the song. The male/female vocal combination was solid and the focal point throughout. Their sound is not quite full enough or vibrant enough yet, but they are off to a good start and could easily develop into something solid and fulfilling. The core of the music is there.
Doldrums - Oh dear, during the first song, I am wondering if this electonic outfit's name may be all too accurately named. It didn't help that there was a slow transition into the second song resulting in a restart after not getting it right. At least one of the keyboard/electronic guys went to a drum kit which always livens up the sound for me. Eventually they got it together and it wasn't half bad thereafter. In fact, it may be a good mix of electronics and soulful pop rock music. It really did not connect with me though, as I'm a hard sell for this. But like most Canadians, they seemed like really nice guys and they hopefully will find a larger audience than the dozen to 15 people here tonight. Perhaps this should be at the U Street Music Hall? Seems a better fit.
Dream of the Night: I vowed in a dream that I would explain the concept of Mensi of
Angelic Upstarts using a second mic on his collar to pick up his vocals as he often sang away from the main microphone. He was doing that quite a bit as I was watching from backstage. Well, it made sense in my dream. Not having seen Angelic Upstarts, I cannot prove this didn't happen.
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