Around Town This Weekend

Feb 11, 2014 – This crazy, cold, snowy winter plus a lack of local shows by most of our favourites has been put a damper on our activities lately. That changed this weekend when, on Friday, Hamilton’s Pete Van Dyk and the Second Hand Band was at Rancho Relaxo and Halifax’s Alert The Medic was at The Underground Garage. Would have liked to catch catl and Micronite Filters at the Atria in Oshawa too but Alert The Medic had to have priority due to the rarity of their GTA shows.

On Saturday, choices also had to be made as it was Womb, Ottawa’s Suns of Stone and The Wicked Mercy and Ajax’s Mother Leads at the Hard Luck Bar, while the Blue Stones were at Handlebar. We would have also liked to check out The Balconies, who just released their new album, Fast Motions, were at Lee’s Palace. It’s been about a year or so since we saw Alan Charlton and Suns of Stone at Sound Academy and the chance to the band again in a gritty club like the Hard Luck Bar won out. Ran into Darren from Stone River, one of our Top 10 Indie Bands of 2013, at the Hard Luck and had a great long chat. We’re very much looking forward to hearing Stone River’s upcoming album. They’re playing at the Hideout on February 28th, the same night as Public Animal at Cherry Cola’s. Hopefully Public Animal’s set will start late.

First up on Friday was

Pete Van Dyk and The Second Hand Band

We first saw Pete Van Dyk and The Second Hand Band last fall at Measure along with Womb and loved the band’s performance and bluesy songs. They opened the show with maybe their best song, Rise The Falling Sun. Like last time, guitarist Ed Van Dyk played some scorching solos and again, a la Hendrix, played behind his back at one point. Speaking of Hendrix, they closed the set with a punk version of Foxy Lady. In between they played some of their great songs like Telephone, Shake Me and Plan B and many others. We did an Emerging Artist Spotlight article with Pete Van Dyk and The Second Hand Band back in December and you can read it here.

Alert The Medic

Alert The Medic was here back in October for Indie Week and the King By King West festivals so it hasn’t been that long since we’d seen them but Alert The Medic is always a treat. Alert The Medic is in town to record a new album, The Phantom Moves, where they raised money through a fan pledge site. They included some new material and some covers, highlighted by Zakk Wylde’s version of the Bill Withers’ classic Ain’t No Sunshine.

As usual, the Underground Garage was packed with their usual very young, very preppy crowd. Alert The Medic led off the show with a new song with a heavy groove that strayed far from We, The Weapon and we like the apparent evolution in their sound. We’re looking forward to hearing the results of their recording sessions.

 Womb

Womb led off Saturday night at the Hard Luck Bar and it was a pleasure to be in a real rock club and with real rock fans. As noted above, we saw Womb back in October at Measure on Bloor and liked their hard-edged and diverse style. We followed up with an Emerging Artist Spotlight article that you can read here. A mixture blues rock, reggae and punk. At one point they warned that it was going to get a bit weird and a couple did. This is a trio of very skilled musicians and we think they have a bright future.

 

Suns Of Stone

We’ve known frontman Alan Charlton and drummer Alex Scott from their prior band and were looking forward to catching them again since missing their last couple Toronto visits. Saturday’s quartet of bands  were together on a mini tour of sorts, having just played shows in Montreal and Ottawa and Saturday was our turn. As usual, Suns of Stone blew us away with their Skynyrd-influenced classic blues rock sound. Things are going well for the band, Suns Of Stone’s debut album has just been picked up by a European distributor. Check out their website here.

Alan Charlton

The Wicked Mercy

Wasn’t planning on staying for The Wicked Mercy but fortunately Darren was there to see them so I stuck around and was very glad I did. The Wicked Mercy is another great blues rock band from Ottawa. Excellent vocals and a very tight band. Looking forward to seeing them again sometime.

Mother Leads

Definitely the unexpected highlight of the night was Mother Leads and again, can thank Darren for even still being there, but were blown away by this power trio from Ajax. Mother Leads is lead by guitarist/vocalist Neil Culbert with Jordan Quinn on bass and Ray Cara (also of Ajax based Womb) on drums. Culbert’s vocals sometimes evoked Vedder and at others Cornell, and in keeping with the Seattle theme, his guitar playing was at times Thayil and at times Cobain. This band could be an amazing Soundgarden tribute act if they were so inclined but thankfully they play their own great originals. They play the Rockpile East on March 6th and we highly recommend getting out to see them. Their website is motherleads.com.

Review and Photos by Steve Mallinson

 T-Mak World: Toronto’s Site For Music, Movies and Culture