Canadian Music Week 2013 – Friday March 22 Recap

Canadian Music Week 2013 – The Horseshoe Tavern Lineup

March 23 2013 – The weekend got under way for the bands playing Canadian Music Week (CMW) / Canadian Music Fest 2013 and as expected every bar was packed tonight. The first few days of CMW are always slow and alot of venues are not at capacity. Tonight was such a different story that we couldn’t do as much bar hopping as we would have liked. In fact we couldn’t even get in to see TimeGiant – the band we have covered more than any other Indie band on the site because they were playing a surprise show with USS and the bar hit capacity very early on.

T-Mak World strives to be THE main resource for rock at CMW 2013 and all our articles are centralized on this page. We offer a recommendation guide of over 100 worthy rock bands here as well as 15 bands that we feature in our “Must See Gigs” guide here. Our nightly recap articles started on Tuesday (article here), Wednesday (article here), and Thursday (article here). Last but not least we have profiled the following artists playing CMW 2013 as part of our Emerging Artist Spotlight:

A Northern Drawl – Toronto, Canada – (Alternative, Psychedelic, Rock)

Bend Sinister – Vancouver, Canada – (Progressive, Rock, Pop)

The Bloody Five – Toronto, Canada – (Rock)

The Breaks – Toronto, Canada –  (Blues,Classic Rock,Country,Rock)

Dance Laury Dance – Quebec City, Canada –  (Hard Rock)

Go For The Eyes – Calgary,Canada –  (Alternative, Psychedelic, Rock)

Manic Sheep – Taipei, Taiwan – (Indie, Pop, Psychedelic, Rock)

My Excuse – Thessaloniki, Greece – (Alternative, Indie, Rock)

Riding Shotgun – Toronto, Canada – (Alternative, Rock)

Son of 1000 – Johannesburg, South Africa – (Adult Contemporary, Alternative, Blues, Funk, Indie, Rock, Soul)

On our quest to find some kick ass music we sent out multiple crews and ended up seeing a total of 13 bands tonight shown below in alphabetical order. We also have a video highlight clip that can be found at the bottom of the article.

A Place To Bury Strangers at Canadian Music Week 2013

A Place To Bury Strangers – Garrison

Word got out the previous day that the special guest at the Garrison would be New York psychadelic band A Place To Bury Strangers. Admittedly we had not heard of them before but thought it would be worthwhile to check them out. Their stage show is incredible in that it is fog filled so that you can not see the three musicians producing the “wall of sound” of  massive psychadelia. The photo above is not our cute attempt at being artsy – it really is the way you saw the band all night. Really kick ass experience and one that one of our editors called it his GIG OF THE NIGHT (see bottom of article).

Armada at Canadian Music Week 2013

Armada – The Hideout

This LA quartet played an excellent set of 90’s inspired indie rock full of riffs at a very packed The Hideout. They delivered an inspired set and their professionalism did not go unnoticed as they seemed genuinely thrilled to be playing Canadian Music Week. Musically alot like Queens Of The Stone Age, their unique vocals stood out tonight.

Black Mastiff at Canadian Music Week 2013

Black Mastiff – The Hideout

If there was ever a set tonight that you would wanna get your buzz on and kick back on a couch and listen intently it was the set that Black Mastiff delivered. Their dark moody music reminded me of early slower Black Sabbath songs (such as Planet Caravan and Rat Salad) where the song borders to jam band territory. I loved that they were one of the few bands not trying to chase the “indie rock” formula that we saw tonight but kept it to the basics of classic rock – long guitar riffs intertwined with thumping bass and drums. Great set guys.

Dustin Bentall at Canadian Music Week 2013

Dustin Bentall and The Smokes – The Horseshoe Tavern

Dustin Bentall threw down a country music infused set that had the audience grooving along, when you see instruments like a fiddle and harmonica chances are its not a rock show and this one certainly had a country groove. Since we are a rock based website we checked out a couple of songs to enjoy a different sound tonight and certainly appreciated the different genre of music. Musically this band is phenomenal.

Funeral Suits at Canadian Music Week 2013

Funeral Suits – Garrison

Very cool set from the Dublin boys. Two synths laid the foundation for a different style of music which was overlaid with massive guitar riffs. A unique mashup of genres these guys rocked hard on stage and really impressed.

Fuss at Canadian Music Week 2013

Fuss – The Hideout

Cool set by Fuss who are clearly influenced by the post punk bands that their sound pays homage to. The hard working trio had a smooth yet rough sound with upbeat tempos. Cool set guys,

Heaven’s Basement at Canadian Music Week 2013

Heaven’s Basement – Cherry Cola’s

This one was huge. The guys from various parts of England are on a path to stardom and of all the bands we saw they were sweating the most tonight. Pure and natural riff driven hard rock energy captivated the packed Cherry Cola’s and they stood out tonight as the band most likely to make it. Very professional and authentic we LOVE Heaven’s Basement. In fact we saw them at an invite only show presented by The Rock 94.9 and if you want to find out more about this band, check out the review of that show here.

Hey Brother at Canadian Music Week 2013

Hey Brother – The Hideout

A softer brand of pop rock these guys really got into it. Great melodic catchy tunes had many tapping their feet at The Hideout. Very strong vocals and a smart polished sound.

Last Bullet at Canadian Music Week 2013

Last Bullet – Cherry Colas

For the second night in a row, the hard rockers got shafted with early timeslots. Last Bullet did not seem phased and put their heart and soul in an epic set which ended with an Elvis cover. This is good hard rock at its ultimate best and we were so glad to not have missed this set. Their incredible front duo of Bryan Fontez and Brenden Armstrong have an amazing on stage persona similar to all of classic rocks duos (Page/Plant, Mercury/May, Daltrey/Townshend, etc). Hope to see you guys at the Underground Garage again today so I can congratulate you personally for getting my GIG OF THE NIGHT (see bottom of article for more info)

Patti Cake at Canadian Music Week 2013

Patti Cake – Velvet Underground

Self described as “A 60’s girl group meets a 90’s grrrl group” this band entertained the patrons of The Velvet Underground. Their description is great because at any given time you would have thought you were listening to the 60’s girl band playing at the drive-in on Happy Days. Very catchy and melodic they kept people dancing and bobbing all during their set.

The Dyadics at Canadian Music Week 2013

The Dyadics – Painted Lady

Dyadics are no strangers to T-Mak World as we have featured them in both an Emerging Artist Spotlight and an Indie on Indie article. These two guys are insanely talented and can rock with the best of them. How cool is a guitarist playing a double neck the whole set and a drummer who is also playing bass through his left hand. We are huge fans of this band and even had them as a must see gig for CMW 2013. Our highest recommendation possible goes to this band and we urge you to catch them next time they play Toronto. They get a GIG OF THE NIGHT for their performance from one of our editors. (More info at bottom of article)

The Town Heroes at Canadian Music Week 2013

The Town Heroes – Bovine

We have seen lots of duos this CMW and here is one more. The guys from Halifax tore up the Bovine (which had a lineup most of the night for people trying to get in) in a wicked set of raw rock. Melodic yet aggressive seems to be the sound they are pursuing and they sure succeeded1

Waterbodies at Canadian Music Week 2013

Waterbodies – Painted Lady

These three dudes from St. Catherines look like mellow dudes but their sound is a dark aggresive complex brand of grungy rock. We REALLY like their sound alot, and although we only got there in time for their last two songs, we think they have great promise and want to hear more. Excellent musicianship is the foundation of any great band and these guys are the real deal. Kudos.

There you have it folks tonight proved to be one of the strongest overall for real good rock at CMW. We leave you with a video montage of bands playing Canadian Music Week 2013 on Friday night.

Verdict:  Like we always do we get all our editors out on the night to pick their GIG OF THE NIGHT (CMW FRIDAY MARCH 22) so here is what everyone picked as their best of T-Mak World (remember we are a rock focused blog and put preference to the rock bands – just personal taste).

Terry Makedon aka T-Mak (Editor in Chief): I am going with Last Bullet for two reasons. First of all they had a very difficult slot (8pm) but still came with their A+ game. They played as energetic as if the bar was packed as it would be later that night. Secondly they plain and simple ROCK. Good work guys, sorry it took me so long to get to see you.

Steve Mallinson (Photographer and Senior Editor): When Heaven’s Basement’s entourage show up at Cherry Cola’s it’s clear to see they’re on a very different career path to most of the bands we cover and their showmanship is on a whole different level. However giving them the gig of the night is almost too easy, so I’m going to go with The Dyadics. This duo’s musicianship is off the charts and when you cover Jimi Hendrix brilliantly, well, then you almost kinda win Gig Of The Night by rule.

Micheal Litt (Videographer and Music Contributor):  My Gig Of The Night was definitely A Place to Bury Strangers.  They were the surprise guest at the Garrison and played a totally rad psychedelic noise rock set. The atmosphere was totally amazing and intense and I thought they were doing a séance to bring back Syd Barrett from the dead. Now that would have been a special guest.