Nick Waterhouse @ The Great Hall – October 8, 2012

Anyone who found themself spending Thanksgiving at the Great Hall was clearly given a trip through a time machine. San Francisco’s Nick Waterhouse, along with his band the Tarots, must be a reincarnation of some lost R&B/Soul soul. Literally dressed to the nines in pleated pants, hair coiffed to total neatness, and rounding it all out with a pair of Buddy Holly frames, Waterhouse and co. brought their bang-on set on Monday to arguably the best venue (aesthetically-speaking, too) that could house their old sound.

Waterhouse’s meticulous attention to detail to his labour of love first LP release Time’s All Gone was effortlessly translated onstage. This is a collective of musicians and artists who get it, who have hearts and souls just bursting with a fondness for that classic sound. The five-piece band, lead by the slick Waterhouse, simply transformed the atmosphere to that of the glory days of American R&B. They’ve got a dirty, groove-worthy thing going, piecing together gems reminiscent of the past, and no doubt inspired by the multitude of music that his former 65-year old roommate and record store owner Dick Vivian exposed him to. Despite this obvious homage to days of old, Waterhouse avoids becoming gimmicky or a blatant mimic of the greats; he simply is an embodiment of the past, a vessel for soul, possessed by the blues. The drums, keys, sax, trombone, bass and tambourine set the stage; Waterhouse’s guitar’s wails and yelps round it all out.

Tracks like the sax-heavy “Say I Wanna Know“ were unbearably smooth, despite the female vocalist in tow recovering from an awful cold. “I realize not every one can be a banger,” Waterhouse said, before grooving into his most ballad-like “Raina.” The stops and starts in the track are so well thought out and passionate, that the crowd couldn’t help but cheer him and the band on. Everyone was reeling with rhythm.

A real treat during the show was their cover of Charles Sheffield’s irresistible “It’s Your Voodoo Working.” Van Morrison’s “Gloria” was also cleverly snuck and entwined into Waterhouse’s “Indian Love Call.” The set just flowed from track to track, smooth and soulful, and sinfully sweet. “I’m feeling good,” said Waterhouse about halfway into his set, words I’m sure every mover and shaker in the audience could agree with. Waterhouse’s introductory trip to Toronto set the soul spinning, and for that I’m especially thankful.

Los Angeles group The Allah-Las opened for Waterhouse with their set of eerie, driving-down-a-dusty-desert-road instrumentals and ‘60s-esque numbers. They later joined Waterhouse and crowded the stage for an energetic and explosive cover of the Womack Brothers’ “It’s All Over Now.”

For a man who freely said that he never imagined performing his work for a live audience, Waterhouse went above and beyond my expectations with his seamless and soulful set. What a man; what a class act.

First Aid Kit @ The Danforth Music Hall – September 26, 2012

Photos of Deylan LeBlanc by Dylan Cordeiro

Swedish folk darlings First Aid Kit graced Toronto recently with a show at the Danforth Music Hall. Opening for the sister-duo of Johanna and Klara, was Louisiana folk singer Dylan LeBlanc, whose southern charm had the crowd wooed enough to join in on a sing-along to The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” about half way through his set. But his colourful banter almost overshadowed his own songs, like when he broke into a fairly hilarious James Brown impression and then followed it by singing the intro of “It’s a Man’s World,” or when he told the crowd about an interesting experience with one of his co-workers at his last job, Applebees (which would be a bit too incriminating to post here).  If his songs weren’t any good, I would’ve liked him to just speak the whole time, but thankfully his set was also memorable. His calming voice worked well with the subtle twang of songs like, “Changing of the Seasons” or “Where Are You Now,” which he prefaced with a story of an ex-girlfriend, but kept it brief, saying not much more than, “She said I was too destructive,” and “I didn’t hit her though, I swear to God I didn’t hit her.” Unfortunately the rest of his band couldn’t be there to back him up, due to some trouble at the border, but he could certainly still carry the songs on his own. He also let the crowd know that he’s “single and ready to mingle.” Watch out Libras and Scorpios.

First Aid Kit opened their set with “In the Morning,” a sparse, half-acapella song that gave their rich harmonies center stage. Next, was “Blue,” a more twee-sounding song from their latest album, which also opens with the line “In the morning.” They dedicated one of their next songs to Pussy Riot and then introduced a b-side for the deluxe version of their album, The Lion’s Roar, called “Marianne’s Son,” which Johanna explained was one of the saddest songs they’d ever written. Klara played the autoharp for “New Year’s Eve” and chimed in on the simple chorus line “That’s what’s going to save me.”

Johanna and Klara’s voices were most impressive when only supported by light instrumentation or sometimes none at all. For “Ghost Town,” they walked to the edge of the stage and sung completely acoustic to the hushed crowd, showcasing not only their wonderful vocal harmonies but also the incredible acoustics of the Danforth Music Hall. And they of course changed the line to “A Toronto window-view” to much applause. They really showed off their ranges on the falsetto chorus of “To A Poet,” which was followed by their tribal-sounding single “Wolf” and a cover of Fever Ray’s “When I Grow Up.” They continued in the vein of sing-alongs with the Nashville country-esque “Emmylou” that it seemed everyone knew the words to. “The Lion’s Roar,” the title track of their new album, was their chance to really rock out, as Klara beat the keys and swung her hair in every direction possible while still regaining composure in time to sing in harmony with Johanna.

For the encore, they performed a cover of Paul Simon’s “America,” which they played at the Polar Music Awards show last year in front of Paul Simon himself. The autoharp made one last appearance for “Sailor Song,” which started off slowly, but quickly had everyone moving their feet when the beat kicked in, after a quick countdown in Swedish by Johanna. But the show ended most triumphantly with their track “King of the World,” a song that describes their world view as a sort of blissful negligence towards their place, and a belief that you can be at once, “The Queen of nothing” and “The King of the world.”