Kind People Only
I was flipping through Instagram when I came across this ad by Amy. She was promoting a new concept of music to Toronto and would like people to open up to this way of listening to music.
Once a month, Kind People Only holds a showcase of four queer acoustic artists to play about a half hour set of their original music.
This happens at The Brockton Haunt starting at about 7pm and goes to about 11pm. During the day The Brockton Haunt is a coffee shop and sometimes at night they hold live entertainment. I will write more about this place in the near future.
They serve food and drinks there and even have a merch table in the back if you want to pick up some of the artists work. They are located at 1158 College St west of Dufferin St.
Michaela Rae
I walked in soon after Michaela Rae started and I had to find a seat quickly in this new place. Once I settled in, I truly felt that I entered a coffee shop back in the 1960’s when folk music was peaking in the Yorkville area. The place was full of attentive listeners soaking in every note that was being played.
Michaela’s lovely voice created a sense of peace and harmony. She switched gears a little bit when she went to play a song called Sewing machine that had to change the tuning of the guitar into an odd sound. This new sound gave the song a sense of humbleness and quietly invited you to sit quietly. It was like sitting with a friend sharing a cup of tea on your day off.
Her next song, “Fear of Truth was celebrating an anniversary. It was exactly one year ago when she first release this song out into the wild.
As she was reaching the last couple of songs in her set, her voice became quite ethereal. This new sound that she was producing completely captured the room with just whispers of sounds that seemed to dance around like a veil in the wind.
Sakako
She is a self described Japanese-Canadian Queer. She began with a soft R&B tune that was chilled. It was like lying on a beach with a loved one just watching the waves.
She really connected with the audience when she pulled out the classic Fleetwood Mac song- “Landslide”. When you have a roomful of strangers singing along, it must be a very endearing feeling.
She was brave enough to let us know she is 26 and we were going to witness her playing the keyboards live for the first time.
It was hard not to enjoy her enthusiasm and her voice. She may be young and growing as a budding artist, but you can feel the room wanting to water her to watch her grow into something more.
As any young person today, a lot of songs are about the end of a relationship. Sakako’s song is called, “Are you done?”
She rebounded back with a happier tune called ,”Thanks to you”. This one felt like a soulful POPsicle that you will enjoy on a loving warm day.
She finished strong with her rendition of Etta James’, “At Last”.
Charlie Houston
Charlie Houston started of quiet and wistful. Charlie brought a new kind of hippie vibe to the stage. Charlie talked about eating a weed cookie and then dropping out of University. That is so Timothy Leary.
Charlie is quite androgynous because of how she dates people. She helped us to understand it is difficult to date someone when you are trying to balance out both your feminine side as well as your masculine side. This really helped give me insight on how complicated this life can be. In today’s world of plenty of pronouns, I feel we are in the Wild West and new rules about how we conduct ourselves are completely being rewritten. It is like learning a new language from scratch.
The lighter side of this review is that Charlie has a great sense of humour. There was a couple who were leaving during her set and she stopped and blurted out, “Was I that bad?” She continued with her quick wit through her set and added that dose of laughter.
Anthony Tafaria
Well, they did choose the right artist to finish the night. Anthony brought in two other musicians to help out with his music. We had Mike Celia on guitar and Jim Toner on Percussion.
He has a very soulful and sensual vibe in his voice. By the time we got to his cover song, “Complicated” by Avril Lagvigne, the place became a karaoke bar for everyone to start singing. His energy and happy vibe kept this room bouncing with abundant joy.
I really enjoyed hi mini-anthem called, “I’m so Pretty”. This was a song where it wanted to smack you with a gorgeous stick.
By the end of the evening his final moment brought on a tremendous communion of fun. I may screw up this title, but it was something like, “Who are you gonna love- Don’t fuck it up” Everybody in the room loved sing the latter half of the title.
This goes out to all you folks who are queer or not. If you love folk music with flair, you should come out one night and just check this out, It may open you up to a whole new world of unknown artists that want to perform for you. I had a Blast! You can to. The next event will be happening on June 5th at 7pm at the Brockton Haunt.
Her are there Instagram page if you would like to explore their music some more.
www.instagram.com/officialsakako/
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