There is a place on the Danforth just west of Woodbine call Hirut Café. As you walk in, you immediately feel that this is a place that loves music. With cool images painted on the ceiling and photos of great Jazz artists, this place is a classy shrine for music lover and the food is great too.
The Dave Barrett Trio set up shop and began the evening with an impromptu opening and then proceeded to play cuts off a new album coming out next week. The album is called “Infinito” and the variety of sounds he played last night was abundant with flavour and taste. The band usually creates a mental landscape and when Dave comes in with one of his solos, you are immediately transported into kaleidoscope of emotional storytelling. This is an all instrumental bands that can create a cinematic narrative that allows your imagination to resonate with an open frequency. For example, with a piece called “Quattro”, I felt like a manic driver swerving down a dirt road in near total darkness. Both frightening and exhilarating, this is just a sample of what you can experience at one of their shows.
This trio is made up of Scott Matthews on Bass, whose chilled energy keeps you relaxed as the other two twist and turn your emotions inside out. Paul DeLong is simply a phenomenal drummer whose energy and prowess can keep a fatigued person wide awake! No need for coffee when watching this guy pound away! David Barrett, guitarist extraordinaire, whose guitar skills can splatter you with gallons of colours or fill in the fine details of a well structured mural you can find in a museum or in a dark alleyway.
David took us all the way back to the 1970’s with some of his material. He introduced an old piece called “Battle Tribulation” and the looks on the bands face was pretty funny as they were surprised that they could actually recall this piece. This brings me to the lively crowd. Clearly these people know they can have fun at these shows. David detailed a story about his guitars over the years when someone yelled out Les Paul! In perfect timing Paul DeLong replied I thought he wanted less drumming-(Less Paul?) When the band came on for their second set, people were yelling out-More Paul! Boy did we get More Paul!
The band had a great time sharing some classic songs from the past. David played a medley of classic guitar riffs from some of our favourite artists like Heart, Yes and even Rush! Speaking of Rush, I noticed one audience member enjoying this evening. That would have been Terry Brown- famed Rush producer.
When you decide to see this band you will take possession of elements of Classic Rock as well as surf music, progressive rock, 10 bar blues, hard rock, driving 70’s guitar licks, just to name a few of the sounds this band can produce. The band does not disappoint when it come to doing covers. They played some Steve Vai as well as Frank Zappa and finished the evening off with some Yes! This is some serious musicianship at a very high level!
Here are some images of Dave Barrett Trio:
To learn more about this band you can follow them here on Facebook- www.Facebook.com/dbtrio