The Ukrainian Federiation is like a church hall/gymnasium, but with movie theatre style seats. It was really nice to be able to sit down and watch a show. As I entered I asked the volunteer at the door who was on. She told me that “Some cute boy who is really overly self concious”. Really, I thought, then I made eye contact with the girl standing next to her, who simply looked back at me and said “Bahamas”. Merci. A trend throughout the festival was that the Pop volunteer staff were pretty to look at, but mostly useless when it came to knowing anything about the event they were actually volunteering for.
It became very apparent that I would not like Bahamas, othewise known as Afie Jurvanen, as soon as I got there. He was sporting a goofy mustache, a lumberjack jacket that was too large for him and he had amusing charming banter with the audience between each of his catchy and mostly acoustic songs. Yes, Bahamas is going to be rich and famous and be able to get any woman he wants. Screw him. Do you like Hayden? Do you like Peter Elkas? Then you are going to love Bahamas. I liked the story about how his song Hockey Teeth is about how he would always knock teeth with a girl he used to date when they kissed. It happens.
Next up was Amy Millan. Backing her up on horns was Butterscotch Ripple (is that what they refer to themselves as?), a three piece horn section fronted by Even Cranley. That guy is always backing up somebody. It is only a matter of time before Evan releases his own solo project.
Amy played a varied selection from her two full length releases. After the first verse of Run For Me she paused and then eventually quit the song becasue she couldn’t remember the lyrics. She commented about it being her Cat Power moment and then told us that what Cat Power would do in this moment is just say that she didn’t feel like playing this song now. She came back for an encore to finish it. It was cute. Her voice has goosebump power. It was pretty awesome. All in all, it was a totally enjoyable evening.
Bahamas and Amy Milan are back in Toronto at the Mod Club on October 14th. If you go to this show, you will be entertained and leave smiling.