If it was a happening you are looking for in the Toronto music scene, this was a night you shouldn’t have missed. There was an eclectic mix of four different bands vying for the original spotlight award.
Void Walker
I have to give this band a bit of a pass because I only caught two of their songs so I can’t really afford my full opinion of them. What I did find out was that this was their first ever gig.
I did catch a really cool story about the discovery of finding King Richards’s body buried under a Tesco in England.
The band seemed to pull their resources from various Metal styles as well as classic Rock styles. The band leans into the Metal side while the singer seemed to be going for an alternative indie style of singing. It was different but they still need a bit of time to blend those styles more seamlessly.
Unfortunately, they got pulled from singing their last song. The singer looked really disappointed because she seemed really passionate about this song. I think we have time to catch them in our future to hear that song. Maybe at gig #2!
Here are the first live shots of Void Walker:
The Peaks
I found it both odd yet enlightening to see the Peaks. They play Blues music which is far from what the other bands were doing this evening. Where I got sucked into was that they opened with Jimi’s Voodoo Chile. It was a slow and bluesy version. This was the right move to make. You shouldn’t try to emulate Jimi’s version. That is a mountain that stands on its own. I have heard other versions that take on an original twist, and that is what the Peaks did.
Their second song was a more moody blues trip. Not the Band…Moody Blues. I immediately felt an emerging talent pushing its way through all that cement like a new little forthcoming plant. This guitarist is looking for a new way and a new tone to carve out yet another piece of the blues never really heard before. You could feel a new style just wanting to enter the room with some enlightened energy.
Just as you were getting settled into their sound, they threw in a Prince Song into the mix. They came back with a a song by Marcus King called Delilah. The audience moved closer to the stage because this band was pulling you in to get a really good look at who they want to be.
If this band can play consistently for the next couple of years, they will be a force to be reckoned with. This is the kind of happening you want to be at. They should look into collaborating with the Toronto Blues Society.
Here are the Peaks, Peaking:
Sayonara Bap
Speaking of Happenings, Sayonara Bap is a band that will slug you in the head with a large red snapper fish and then stomp on it just to stand out. Don’t worry no fish was harmed during this performance. This band consists of four bi-sexual men out to create absolute chaos in a very creative way.
I am unsure what their name stands for. It started off as a bi-sexual club reference and by the end of the show, it became the head of the President.
This is a band that comes out of left field riding a turbo fueled lawnmower tractor just to run over aluminum cans just for fun.
I watched four guys standing on stage and none of them looked like they belonged together. They played a variety of different styles, most of them all at once. Was this dance or was it punk? All I knew was they were hitting everybody with a wall of sound that didn’t make sense, yet you couldn’t look away.
They are a very tight band that is searching out their original sound and make it a Bappening! Well, the vibe they threw at us was fun and saucy and the only time they got serious was that they want to be seen as an original act. They won me on that vote.
They tried out a new song called “Zombieboy” and they really hoped they wouldn’t screw it up. Since we have never heard this song before, they could have screwed it up many times and we wouldn’t notice.
I loved their song, “Worms against God”. Check out my video of them in action on Instagram, Blast_Toronto
Their music has so many nuances to them, you cannot pigeonhole them to a single style. This is the kind of band that needs to explore everything and put it out there for a thirsty audience wanting something brand new, and Sayonara Bap can make that Bappen!
What’s Bappening with Sayonara Bap:
Jayniac Jr
After that genre bending band, we had to brace for another Genre bending band called Jayniac Jr. This band takes on a variety of high energy Funk, with some death metal mixed with Hip Hop mixed with jazz overtones.
It may sound over the top, but they bands holds it all together with experience and conviction. What could have been a full-on assault of sound turned into a party of celebrating differences. If they were compared to the Red hot chili peppers, they could be called the Warm Fat Purple Eggplant.
“When Mercy Sparks” is a new song that is a reference to a comic book character. I love when bands go for those obscure pop references, because it brings light to a side of culture that may be forgotten.
This band could come at you in many directions. At one point they were going for a death fuzz sounds only to have the sax player throw in odd love notes that had a romantic twinge to it. I guess you have to be a Stone in love to understand this approach.
The lead guitarist Chelsey is a fresh breath of air, because you don’t often see a Black woman rocking it out on guitar. The audience clearly let her know how much that means to them, every time she got to do a solo.
Near the end of their set, they slowed things down with what felt like a high school dance song. This was a very strange choice, but this is not an ordinary band. I got a kick out of the introductions. We got to meet the band and when we focused our attention to Jay, he cranked out a good bass solo, and the other members were cooling him down by waving their arms like giant fans. It was a fun James Brown moment.
The band got called back on for an unrehearsed encore. The only thing they had left was a song they did their sound check too. Again, they could have messed this on up several times, and we wouldn’t notice. It started off as a Ska Punk sound and then turned into different musical genres every 12 bars or so. This was a night of original musical rides.
This truly was an evening of Bappenings!
Jayniac the Maniac Live:
Here are the links to their Instagram pages so you came explore more amazing music coming from the healthy Toronto scene. It is time to go out and explore again, with the good weather finally here!
www.instagram.com/thepeakstres
Live at the Horseshoe | Sayonara BAP
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