May 6 2015 – CMW 2015 continues and we have watched a handful of bands so far and our Queen Street crawl continues for yet another night. One would expect that a Tuesday night would be pretty slow however that was certainly not the case as tonight proved to be the best all round night for #RealRock so far. Check out our mini review of CMW 2015 for May 5 2015 – and as always check a video recap of the night at the bottom of this article.
Jesse Roper @ The Hideout 8 pm
We’ve said that if Zeppelin is mentioned in a bio, we’re immediately interested. If you mention Zeppelin and Hendrix, well then we simply have to check out the show. Victoria, BC native, Jesse Roper played to a surprisingly crowded Hideout considering the early 8pm timeslot. We were treated to scorching blues guitar pyrotechnics in the style of Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Hendrix. The knowledgeable crowd were shouting out song names, one in particular, Yukon Girl, closed the show. One of our editors – Steve Mallinson named this one his Gig of the Night and you can see the video clip performance below to see why.
Glass Amp @ Bovine 9 pm
Holy crap this band is freakin good! That is what I kept thinking at their showcase at the Bovine with their assault of hard rock blues. Killer bass and drum backbone, phenomenally powerful vox and guitar riffs that never seemed to end their aural assault of my rock hungry ears. When the band dared to take on Led Zeppelin I knew they would not disappoint and sure enough they nailed Whole Lotta Love with ease – including the earth shattering “Loooooove” lyric that Robert Plant immortalized. We are huge fans of this band and strongly recommend them.
Live How You Live @ Hideout 10 pm
Catchy rock tunes with a slightly raw edge, the clean and polished sound made it very easy to get into Hamilton rockers Live How You Live. We immediately thought this is a great band to see at an outdoor summer festival with a nice cool beer in hand. They had that kind of vibe. The band was highlighted by frontman Carm Milioto and even drummer Todd Hornby got into the fun with vocals on an up-tempo rocker.
Zoo Legacy @ 11 pm
Zoo legacy was rapper singing over live music, so we wont provide any editorial as we only stick to #RealRock. Audience did get into them though and were enjoying the change of pace.
Sedge @Bovine 11 pm
Good size crowd at The Bovine for this 5 piece punk influenced grunge band. Raw and vicious moments were provided and things got hot and heavy during the set. Great sound with energy to match.
Aviator Shades @ Hideout 12 am
Vancouver has atoned for the sin of giving the world the pop shit known as Nickelback. Proving that there is no mind numbing chemicals in the city’s water Aviator Shades have served notice that there is #RealRock west of Calgary.
Damn did we like Aviator Shades. Finally, long haired rockers dominating the stage as if they were playing the Air Canada Center and not The Hideout. Their show reminded us the first time we saw bands like TimeGiant and One Bad Son make the stage their bitch at CMW a few years ago. Aviator Shades confidently took over The Hideout and were the most energetic live performers we have seen during CMW. This is real rock and roll with blistering dual guitars, thunderous drums and growling powerful vocals. Aviator Shades played CMW for the first time in their career and in fact played Toronto for the first time as well and we were so glad to be there. From the opening notes of Ready To Blow the place went crazy with the aural assault and damn did it feel good. This showcase is T-Mak’s “Gig Of The Night” winner for tonight. The band also did a cover of a killer Thin Lizzy tune as well as a mash up of Survivor’s boxing anthem Eye Of The Tiger. Welcome to Toronto lads, we have been waiting for you! Now get back here again soon please. The setlist was:
- Ready to Blow
- Doin Allright
- Emerald (Thin Lizzy cover)
- Who do you think you are?
- Lay Your Body Down
- Eye of the Storm/Eye of the Tiger
- Slice Of Your Pie
- Tallahassee Woman
The Pinholes @ Hideout 1 am
How far would you go to play your music? Well in the case of The Pinholes they come all the way from Singapore – which happens to be one of my favourite places in the world! The Pinholes were certainly the coolest dressed band we saw at CMW with their matching pinstripe suits reminiscent of the swinging 60’s a la Austin Powers. Their music instantly transported me to a tropical paradise like California, Hawaii, The Bahamas or even Singapore. Greatly surf and classic 60’s rock influenced the lads were ALL smiles, and if they were facing jetlag after the huge journey they certainly weren’t showing any sign of it. Fantastic set and everyone was having fun in the venue. We even spotted Charlie McKittrick of TimeGiant in the audience and he told us that TimeGiant will be playing in Singapore in a couple of weeks for their music festival. Hopefully The Pinholes and TimeGiant get to do some Canadiana-S’pore jam!
Oh what a night this was! Tons of amazing artists tonight and I am happy to say that we were there the first night Aviator Shades spread their killer rock to Toronto.
