Danforth Music Hall

The Danforth Music Hall was packed like a bunch of White Horses. This will be the first time I will see them live. The people I met before the show seemed to be dedicated fans that will follow this band until…

So I strapped myself in and waited to see what this band is capable of.

All in the Family

They opened the show with- “I wanna make promises that I cannot keep”. This felt like a pre-cursor to what was about to unfold for the evening. It was carefully arranged to let the audience know there will be more than 3 people on the stage this night.

This night belonged to their family and Uncle John on drums. Mellissa and Luke decided to introduce their children to the world. This is how they chose to do it.

We met Little Jimi on the keyboards and big sister Chloe on guitar and vocals. It was as if they welcomed all of us into their musical home.

This five piece band brought a sense of comfort and grace and youthful energy. The songs seemed a little friendlier, Even though they do carry a tinge of darkness with them.

The band had us clapping early with “Sad Sad Songs”. We were clapping as Melissa sang into her broken telephone that kept things a little disjointed.

Luke seemed happy to be switching his guitars back and forth. One of them is a Martin from 1973 and the other Martin dates back to 1959.

They continued with their sad songs when they tugged at our heartstrings with Division 5. It is a song about one lost soul looking for another.

New Album

The band is touring their brand new album, “All I want is all”. They chose to play 4 new songs that simply added to magic that makes this a great live band.

“2155” is a look in the not-too-distant future

“Pure Poetry”, I think the title says it all.

“I want the milk”, a gentle reminder of how today’s society is becoming increasingly disconnected.

“Bullet in the Chamber”, what a way to receive bad news.

The Family Circus

Like the comic strip, Family Circus where the young child never takes the straight way home, Whitehorse took this course in their show.

Their daughter Chloe is a young artist working on her own material. Like great parents they decided to give her the spotlight for three songs. She began with a soft voice and soon began to emerge into this vibrant musician with a strong sense of pop sensibility. As she continued her, presence grew and she looked like someone who is figuring out how to break free and liven up the stage.

I think this was made easy by her supportive parents who never once looked like they were trying to create perfection on stage. Instead, what we witness was a loving family simply having fun together. It was like having our parents together and playing game night at home.

Is this the evolution of Whitehorse?

I did ask them after the show, why they chose now to put this together. Melissa said she wanted to give Jimi some stage time to help develop his musical talent. Chloe did step in and tell me that she has her own busy musical schedule and that she really wanted to make time to do something like this with her family. She also let me know she is having the time of her life being able to share these moments with her family.

That moment became apparent in the second half of the show, when Jimi sat by his keyboards and Chloe sat beside him and did a Brother and Sister song together. It was a memorable moment in the show as the proud parents came back on stage.  I enjoyed watching Luke interact with his son while playing. Like a Father teaching his son to play baseball, this family helps their children play music. This is going to be a great musical family for all of us to enjoy in the future.

Well, if that is our future, they reached down and pulled out their past as well.

Near the end of the show, they invited on stage Luke’s dad. At that moment, I had that thought of him walking over to the Mic and saying, “Luke, I am your Father”!

Roland Doucet is an Acadian from Nova Scotia who grew up playing Jazz/Blues and Swing music mostly in the Ottawa area.

Like most of us, he grew up loving the Beatles and early Rock and Roll.

What Luke has with his son, Jimi is a carbon copy of the past. Roland use to take Luke around the rich blues scene in Winnipeg in the 1980’s. He helped him cut his teeth on the scene there, and now we are seeing the passing of that torch live at the Danforth Music Hall.

I walked out of that experience feeling “All of it”.

If you were at this show, I would love to hear your comments about your experience. Please them at the bottom of this page.

This is Whitehorse live-