Live Music
I and a few others ended up at the Cloak and Dagger in downtown Toronto the other night, watching a band called the Gospel Sundays.
The bar itself is very narrow, and doesn't really have a stage. The band is basically pressed up against one side of the bar, with room for one person to walk between the band and the tables. The band consists of a pianist, a guitarist, a drummer (with just a snare drum, a small crash cymbal, and foot-stomping), and not one but two stand-up bassists. There are no microphones, and many of the band and audience (many of whom seemed to know the songs well) sang loud. I'm surprised they weren't hugely hoarse.
The players are all very talented, though much of the music was simple. The music was happy, "bar-type" music. It felt kinda like walking into the hobbit bar in Lord of the Rings, only without shortened heights. It was like being at a small town party, where the entire town showed up somehow. It was folksy and celebratory, and at first even just being there gave me a sort of happy feeling. It was like the club itself was a living, breathing entity that we had become a part of solely by entering.
My only real complaint is, unfortunately, a big one. I wanted to hear something sad. I suppose I always want to hear something sad, but that's who I am. And I'm sure that half the people in the bar wouldn't have liked that too much, so it's hard to criticize them too much for not doing so. It's just sad to me when I see a group of talented musicians playing to a packed house, and (in my view at least) being more or less hamstrung to play drinking music, which as far as I can tell is music that (despite the players' talent) NOBODY would want to listen to sober. Shrug. I want performers to pour their souls directly into every song. I know that can be happy in theory, but I don't think it can result in lyrics like "Hey hey, what can I say" repeated 18 times. Maybe my standards are too high, but what can I really do about it? The best answer I can come up with is to check out bands like Porcupine Tree that actually seem to try for what I want. On the plus side, they're coming to Toronto in October.
The bar itself is very narrow, and doesn't really have a stage. The band is basically pressed up against one side of the bar, with room for one person to walk between the band and the tables. The band consists of a pianist, a guitarist, a drummer (with just a snare drum, a small crash cymbal, and foot-stomping), and not one but two stand-up bassists. There are no microphones, and many of the band and audience (many of whom seemed to know the songs well) sang loud. I'm surprised they weren't hugely hoarse.
The players are all very talented, though much of the music was simple. The music was happy, "bar-type" music. It felt kinda like walking into the hobbit bar in Lord of the Rings, only without shortened heights. It was like being at a small town party, where the entire town showed up somehow. It was folksy and celebratory, and at first even just being there gave me a sort of happy feeling. It was like the club itself was a living, breathing entity that we had become a part of solely by entering.
My only real complaint is, unfortunately, a big one. I wanted to hear something sad. I suppose I always want to hear something sad, but that's who I am. And I'm sure that half the people in the bar wouldn't have liked that too much, so it's hard to criticize them too much for not doing so. It's just sad to me when I see a group of talented musicians playing to a packed house, and (in my view at least) being more or less hamstrung to play drinking music, which as far as I can tell is music that (despite the players' talent) NOBODY would want to listen to sober. Shrug. I want performers to pour their souls directly into every song. I know that can be happy in theory, but I don't think it can result in lyrics like "Hey hey, what can I say" repeated 18 times. Maybe my standards are too high, but what can I really do about it? The best answer I can come up with is to check out bands like Porcupine Tree that actually seem to try for what I want. On the plus side, they're coming to Toronto in October.
posted by Gideon Humphrey at 11:55 AM
1 Comments:
Dude! Next time you're going to the Cloak & Dagger call me. It's my favourite pub. We have to go out at least once before you move out of my town again.
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