After four unique acts hit the Handlebar stage and two birthday celebrations, Andrea from the band Civil Wray exclaimed, “We should go on tour”! It not a bad idea, and I will tell you why.
Each of these acts brought something completely different to the stage. Nobody upstaged the other and they all worked well together as a complete show.
Alissa Vox Raw
Alissa Vox Raw is a one woman show with keyboards and a bunch of gadgets that create her unique brand of sound. And what sound do you think she makes?
Well, she usually starts of simple with a beat and an idea and builds a creation that takes shape right in front of you. It is highly electronic and has a certain shade of darkness to it.
As she builds the song and adds her loopy signatures, you soon are swept into a haunted cacophony of night sweats. With a topic as simple as driving a car, you can be transported back to the 80’s but with nebulous tendrils tickling inside your dreariness.
She even adds in primitive chants that come from a lonely spectre in search of repressing a sense of desperation and depression. These are the kind of sounds your rarely hear but can relish in, once they seep into your psyche.
Alissa’s approach to her sound tries to unlock something within each of us through a somnolent process of facing your personal bewilderments. Take her song, “No Fear”. She states the obvious message of having no fear, but as a listener you must engage in your personal fear to get to the message.
I really enjoy her unique approach to music as a solo artist.
Alissa in the Raw:
Civil Wray
I have seen Civil Wray do a solo show before, and now I get to witness her full band. As a full band she has a guitar player that really elevates the entire sound. I say this because early on in the set, Joseph has this special technique that he does with just two fingers on his guitar. This simple movement really propelled the song into a true Rock N Roll moment.
From that moment on, you became glued to your television set to see what would happen next. What happened next was watching Andrea, the lead singer and violinist take control of the helm as she spilled her guts out on the stage. She fearlessly gets into a zone where her message must be heard, and she doesn’t mind being loud as she puts it all on the line.
A song like “Sparkle”, is like a slow burning sparkler that penetrates your psychedelic dream. She even has a song about a swear word that adds a bit of salsa with its flavourful drumbeats and a very warm and rich guitar tone that can enrapture your core being.
She even has a song about a cannibal that picks away at your brain like a Mandarin buffet. I really enjoyed her last song. It felt like it was an invitation to have a waltz through a graveyard. Eclectic: I think so…
Some Civil Photos:
Birchill Bandit
This is a man who plays guitar while holding onto a drumstick and playing the drum while he hits his guitar with that stick and sings simultaneously. Brendan really is a one man show!
He told me earlier that he has some issues with his arm, and then he goes on stage and proclaims that he now has to get through 9 songs. His first song has that true 70’s guitar riff with a straightforward drum pattern. So far this is pretty cool. Where else can he go?
With his guitar riffs, you are transported back to when guitar riffs were the coolest thing, and Brenda’s riffs reminded me of band like UFO or Thin Lizzy.
He switched it up and did an Alt-Country Rock tune that really stood out. Then he really rocked our asses off with his heavy version of “Netflix and Chill”.
There was even a moment when he stripped down a song and turned it into a Kraut Rock song from 50 years ago.
The surprise, and really it wasn’t that big of a surprise, is when Brendan invited his partner Alissa to the stage. Put these two together and you now have a favourite underground band called Queens and Kings. They finished off the set with two songs. This was like the cherry on top of your dessert, and we still had the main act going on next. I was beginning to feel full at this Mandarin Buffet.
Here is the One man show:
MIP Power Trio
If you haven’t seen MIP yet, you should. She is an artist who is becoming a beloved artist in the underground scene here in Toronto. Mip originally hails from northern British Columbia and moved to Toronto a few years ago to make her mark in Canada.
She will reference the difference between her rural life in a small town and compare it to the big city life. It can be quite a struggle to adapt yourself to a big city, but MIP is the kind of person who makes friends very quickly.
What makes this band stand out is the way they blend different genres of sound together. They shouldn’t make sense, but this Power Trio has figured a way to present it in a rocking way that you just dive into that sound.
A song like “Take me back”, is cornucopia of Ska, mixed with country and garage pop. She can also blend a surfing sound with a skater punk sound.
Mip’s stories come from a place of blunt honesty with a young naive charm. One of those stories that got me thinking was about living in a community where you have to be aware of wildfires. Toronto doesn’t have to worry about wildfires, but when you live in a small town surrounded by trees, it is a big concern. This is the kind of perspective this band brings to the table. Don’t worry, this band can also rock the hell out of you with living in the world of after hour clubs. Living after midnight seems to be this bands mantra.
They even did a song that had a full-on Monster truck rock energy and still fit in what seemed like the theme to the old show the Munsters. This band could throw in a lot of clichéd sounds without it feeling cheesy or dated. They just have a knack of blending all kinds of sounds and spreading it out in front of you like a Mandarin buffet.
MIP Power Trio in action:
Happy Birthday
After a cornucopia of various sounds and moods, the evening ended with two birthday celebrations. We had Greg from MIP Power Trio and Andrea from Civil Wray. Everybody got on stage and gave a rousing version of Happy Birthday with lots of love in the room.
If you want to get to know these bands, check out their Instagram accounts here.
www.instagram.com/alissavoxraw/
www.instagram.com/thebirchillbandit/
www.instagram.com/mippowertrio/
If you were at the show, we welcome your perspective. Please make your comment at the bottom of our page.
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