Toronto has two major music festivals, Canadian Music Festival (formerly Canadian Music Week) and North by North East. Neither of them are particuarly amazing, but I feel as though NXNE has always been significantly more together than CMF. This year however, CMF has a great lineup, especially in comparison to former years. Last year I snagged two wristbands for free, giving one away and using one to see the amazing Six Shooter Showcase at the Reverb. This will more than likely be my last time ever going to the legendary Big Bop building. I had the pleasure of seeing Canadian gems - Jenn Grant and Amelia Curran.
This year, buying a ticket I saw Jason Collett, Zeus and Bahamas in what they titled the "Bonfire Ball". This was their first gig of the tour. I stumbled by at aroudn 9:30pm expecting to have missed a couple of songs of Bahamas' opening set. Much to my chagrin I caught the tail end of "Hangover Days". That indicated that Collett was holding a revue gig. One giant set, all bands mixed with Zeus as the house band, keeping the audience on their toes. I was blown away by all the bands I came across tonight. Collett, no surprise really - his presence and sound comes so effortlessly. He's always had the charm, I'm just so happy he finally has the support in both fans and musical family to finally call the shots. Over the past five or six years i've watched Collett nurture Zeus, from Paso Mino to just his backup band to the all mighty Zeus. He refers to them as musical renaissance men, shared instrument and vocal duty. The lead singer is only twenty three, isn't that something. Collett referred to his voice as one of the most "rock and roll" voices he's heard recently. The standout song of their set was the "Greater Times on the Wayside" and "River by the Garden" mash up. Much less a mashup but one short song fused together with a much longer one, kind of like Abbey Road. The first tune, "Greater Times on the Wayside" is a John Lennon sounding tune that bleeds into "River by the Garden" which comes off sounding like a Ringo tune. Yikes. Surprising live came off significantly charming, unfortunately I can't say the same for the recorded version. Zeus' new album dropped a couple of weeks ago. They've recieved an overwhelming amount of press, publicity and hype. Deserving every last drop of it, I'm really excited to see where they go next.
Bahamas is yet another google proof band. Bahamas is Afie Jurvanen. Holding nothing in his album cover shows his birthdate, full name, height and weight. I was really amazed by this man he really carries himself as a rock star should. His tunes are sincere and thoughtful. The only one I can carry by name is "Hockey Teeth" which found its way on to Collett's CBC made podcast. I really loved his one tune he played about him waiting for a girl that may love someone else. It's goofy, but not Barenaked Ladies goofy. I've been meaning to get his album, but i've held back from buying it. He's one of those artists that are not big enough to find online, but it would be pretty easy to find his album at a used place. He sounded fantastic with a band and with just his guitar and the drums. Playing with just drums, his guitar and voice filled up the music making it sound full and lively. Big things for this man.
He's incredible recorded too:
Collett as I mentioned before always dazzles me, from his rugged good looks to his effortless ease on stage. When I see him I feel like he's playing for myself alone. He makes things personal and intimate, no matter if he plays with a big group or alone with a guitar. He also played things from across his catalogue. He has four albums out, now with yesterday's release of Ratatat. I was most surprised to hear him play "Almost Summer" off of his best album to date Idols of Exile. I remember purchasing that album thinking: "Wow, the new Jason Collett album". I bought it at a record store near the summer school I went to. It was summer of 2005, five years ago! The tune "Almost Summer" is an autobiographical history of events in his life. I know this because he use to have this absolutely charming description of this in his biography portion of his website four or five years ago. The link I provided under "Almost Summer" has him explain what's it's more or less about. Following "Almost Summer" he played "High Summer" which he described as the sequel to "Almost Summer". I love both, I have had the pleasure of hearing "High Summer" to know what it sounds like. It's apparently on his new album. The first Jason Collett gig I saw I think was at Lee's with my good friend Nicole and our fake IDs. At that time KT Tunstall opened up for him, which is absolutely mind boggling because she had a big billboard for her new album on Spadina at Queen. Collett is luck to have a showcase at Sonic Boom. I think Collett was the artist I was able to sneak it to the most - seeing him play the Mod Club which is incredibly weird. The 6ixty8ights (I think that's how they spelt it!) opened for them with Paso Mino, basically Zeus now! All those times I snuck in, I desperately wanted to hear "Almost Summer". It wasn't until tonight that I heard him play it live, away from Youtube! Big night, well worth the twenty five bucks I dropped.
