Why AVAtars? Hugh’s Room had three Guitar virtuosos in their house. 

Antoine DuFour

Van Larkins

Adrian Bellue

If you love listening to high end guitar players, I am sorry you missed out on a magical evening of incredible guitar playing. Just to make it worse, Hugh’s Room just introduced a brand-new state of the art digital soundboard and brand-new high-end speakers. I can honestly say the Hugh’s Room has one of the best sounds in the city, bar none. On the note alone, you have no excuse not to see a show at Hugh’s Room.

Just like I expected at a show with three amazing guitar players, the slow buildup of sound transported the audience through a meditative state. As the sound sent you into a metaphysical tunnel of unwavering pathways for you to explore, you became the guide to your emotional state.

The ease of their collaboration laid you in a field of endless stars and your journey was to follow your destination wherever the peaceful sounds carried you. They did a piece called “Mystified”, and in my mind I could hear the Band Tangerine Dream from the 1990’s period. Tangerine Dream is known for their keyboard work with some guitar and some percussion. Well, this was done with just two artists with two guitars. It was remarkable.

The show kept rearranging itself whether it was all three artists, just two, or solo pieces. This is what made the show so captivating. Adrian Bellue kicked it up a notch with his darker sounds. The sound he was producing was what I could only describe as harmonic machinery. He did an amazing progressive piece called “Devil Hands” that just was filled with absolute originality.

When Antoine DuFour had his turn, I found his style is like taking a vacation. He creates visual landscapes for our soul. It is a space away from the noise going on inside and it soothes you like a well-deserved spa treatment. His piece called; “Echo” was like watching synchronized divers at the Olympics. Two guitarists perfectly matching the same frequency, but then sliding away with their own sound and then entangling themselves again.

As far as Van Larkins sound is concerned, he takes a friendlier path. There were two moments that I really enjoyed. The first one was his piece called, “Orion”. He spoke about his love for 1980’s pop songs. As he played the song, I could hear the essence of Phil Collins in there. The other piece was from a fun story about meeting a young sausage dog and writing a piece about him. The song was called, “Puppy Love”.

Another moment I enjoyed was a song about Dracula. Yes, it should have been dark and scary, but instead it had a funky feel to it. Who knew that vampires had a groove?

I really could go on about each and every piece, but I think you get the idea of the evening at Hugh’s Room. They finished of the last song with a piece called, “Rainfall”. Like a good rainfall, it ended   off very gently and calmly.

The crowd did not let them off the stage so, they did an encore called, “Catching the light”. You can see this footage at Catching the light with Antoine DuFour, Adrian Bellue, Van Larkins. – YouTube

I will just reiterate that having three incredible players in a room with brand new state of the art equipment where you hear every nuance of every note is worth the price of admission. You can use Blast Toronto’s Directory and find out who will be playing at Hugh’s room next.

Here are the three of them in action: