Big Rock Finish… reviews of independent music

Alright. I normally don’t do multiple posts on the same band, especially when they’re close enough that they will likely end up on the same page.

Awaking State was invited to play at Republik Nightclub, a very well-known spot right in the Entertainment District of Toronto. With it’s dress-codes and $20.00 per night parking spots, I was wary of even going because I didn’t want to stress about being turned away for wearing a t-shirt and jeans.

Thankfully Republik is a nightclub that allows my kind of wardrobe so I didn’t need to worry too much. Being friends with the band has its privileges, such as getting into the club for free, all I needed to do was provide the photographic evidence that the band exists.

Awaking State was to hit the stage at 9:00pm. Doors were supposed to open at 8:30. Fair enough. 8:30 I was basically in line waiting for said doors to open. Ah, the musician’s lifestyle. Never on time. Anyways, the most confused I’d ever been, seeing as how there were four different guest lists you could have been on to pay a reduced cover charge, but me being special I paid the band’s photographer cover-charge.

The stage was… strange. I’d seen small stages before, but they’re normally still pretty box or square shaped. This was the widest, skinniest stage I’d ever seen. There was no depth to it, and it really wasn’t meant to be a stage I don’t think. There was a riser just below/in front which would have worked perfectly, but instead we got to see the boys behind a funny looking protective railing.

Awaking State was awesome. As usual. Every song flowed well into the next, very high energy and lots of interaction between band members. Having the drummer, Brandon, pull funny faces at me was just hilarious. Equally hilarious, but more likely to send me to hell, is all the times watching the lead singer, Kent, stand on his toes to reach the microphone. I kept thinking to my self he should have just lowered it, he’d be more comfortable.

In the end, the Awaking State set wasn’t long enough, I enjoyed the songs I already recognized from their album & previous show, and the new song was great as well. I didn’t realize one of the songs was a cover, but the crowd seemed to enjoy it.

It’s just too bad clubs rarely fill up until after midnight. Because everyone who was shaking their money maker on the dance floor as the booze was flowing missed out on a great set.

Lord knows when Awaking State will play next, but I’m sure I’ll be there!

Me being me, I’ve come to realize that I’ve been neglectful to the world of independent music.

That sucks.

I suck!

Boo-urns to me.

Seeing as how I’ve gone through the month of May with nary a post, I will be working on new material, writing about a bunch of great shows I’ve been a part of watching, and reviewing some albums that have unfortunately been long collecting dust on my desk.

In happier news, I am writing from a shiny new LCD monitor (like you all care) which makes reviewing that much easier since everything looks prettier! I’ve also cleaned my room which makes realizing just how MANY albums I have yet to review… more organized.

If a little daunting.

So give me just a few more days and the reviews continue!

I’m working my way backwards from the beach party show that happened last month. First things first, Señor Kasio was last to go on. It’s never fun for me to go to a show on a school night, but for these guys I just had to. I wanted to see what the big fuss was about.

So Steve had been running around for weeks online promoting his beach party show, and something about some very large balls. As they were the closing band, it took a while to see this dream turn into a reality. Sadly, four metric tonnes of sand was not brought into the venue.

The boys took to the stage like fish being dropped back into their fish bowl. Always with the high energy, and hilariously in t-shirts, shorts, sandals and lei’s. I think the funniest was the lei’s. Or perhaps it was the sandals. Thankfully no one was wearing socks with them! I kind of hoped for Hawaiian shirts, because as Homer once said “Hawaiian shirts are for gay guys and big fat party animals… (and Bart doesn’t look like a big fat party animal to me.)”

I know all the songs by now, can attempt to sing and dance along with every one of them, and there was some sort of crowd even though it was a late night and everyone had work and/or school in the morning. The high energy in the singing and dancing on stage was always just enough to feed the audience the energy to keep going, and I do hope that we, as the audience, provide enough back to make being on stage worth it!

The large balls that Steve was boasting about was a 3 ft beach ball purchased online, and unfortunately there is a skill in beach ball mathematics that he did not learn until after his purchase. And while the crowd warmed up to the idea of tossing this thing around during the show, very few casualities were had.

The venue was somewhat empty, until the last song where it seemed everyone appeared out of the woodwork. Seeing as how Señor Kasio and S.N.A.K. share a guitarist, and generally are quite friendly, they seemed mainly to attack the stage, and add a more fuller feeling to the band… if not just simply sexually harassing them. They’re in a band, they should be used to it.

So in closing, the crowd could have been bigger, and it could have been held on a night that wasn’t a school night. I missed my unicycle club meeting for this show. But, as with all Señor Kasio shows, I’ll definitely be coming back again!

So I wasn’t expecting to spend tonight at a show, I mean, come on. It’s a school night. Then again, I didn’t have to be at work until late because there would be no power for a large majority of the morning, and I spend too much time on Facebook as it is, and found a message from Nathan Down saying he was just thrown into a show at the Reverb. Now, seeing as how I haven’t seen Mikey S perform in a while, and I haven’t seen him perform in this particular group, I thought why the hell not, I would already be downtown, and was pretty sure I could wrangle a dSLR from someone before showing up.

Two things.

When a set is announced at 5:05pm and is going to be happening at 8:30, it is extremely rare that you will be able to find everyone you need. I showed up around 9pm to meet and greet Mikey and was haphazardly introduced to “the gang” and to find out that Mikey would not be performing, as no one could find the band’s drummer, so Nathan would be performing solo.

When a venue has its liquor license pulled the night before the night of a performance, generally you will not have heavy crowds coming out to see the bands. I felt the wind whistling through my hair, or something equally poetic. I found it just a little bit hilarious, but found it absolutely appalling that the venue was now charging $3.75 for a 500mL of water.

I need to stop being so long winded.

So, Nathan was first to go on stage. And I really had no idea what to expect. I’d never listened to the sound clips or watched video clips online. I was expecting a guy and a guitar, in some nice sort of soothing type of mellow music, as he looked like a nice soothing mellow kind of guy.

Blown away, would be one way to put it. I did not expect the power in Nathan’s vocals, his voice, and just how he performs. I realize now that he would have made more sense with a band, since everything he did seemed just a little overpowering for a one-man show. But he had the skills, and everything sounded great.

Everything looked great too. Early on in the set someone in the crew yelled out at him to take his shirt off, and he made a comment about it being well known that he’s very shy. Now, I was beginning to recall many photos of Nathan Down sans shirt, so I was confused by all these comments. However when it was suddenly proclaimed that “It’s too hot in here!” I was now seeing a man with no shirt on strap a guitar around his shoulders. And the show went on.

I definitely enjoyed the show, even with the lack of alcohol, and lack of… crowd. I definitely felt bad for every artist that was scheduled to be there, because it’s honestly quite painful to sit at a venue with nothing to drink. Mikey promises to let me know of the next Nathan Down show that will happen, and I am looking forward to it!