Toronto – Nobody sells frozen apple concentrate juice anymore. You see, I am going to a potluck tonight for my friends birthday and I am making pulled pork from this ridiculously awesome recipe and I simply could not find any frozen apple concentrate anywhere. Not Metro, not Shoppers Drug Mart, not your local corner grocery store. I substituted regular apple juice. Hopefully it’s just as good, because sometimes when something is different then advertised, it usually leads to disappointment.

If you went to see the Phenomenal Handclap Band based on the cutesy folksy music video 15 to 20, you probably would have expected some sort of cute indie pop band from New York with flowery dresses. You would have been DEAD WRONG. Opening up for Simian Mobile Disco on a cold Friday night, the New York band sounded nothing like what I expected – and were completely awesome for it. Taking the stage at around 11:35, the band (with two leather clad female members) went on stage and played about fifty minutes of pure disco funk that had the packed crowd at the Mod Club dancing about 2 minutes in, an impressive feat.

With a lineup of a bassist, a drummer, a synth dude, two guitarist and two ladies, the group instantly launched into an instrumental opener so cool that I was wondering if this was the Phenomenal Handclap Band or some obscure super band transported from some uber hip Harlem disco club from the 70s. Where was the handclaps? Nope, it was just kick ass basslines left and right. It was great. I think most of the crowd was semi pissed that the Mod Club decided to open the doors at 11pm instead of 10pm (as said on the ticket) so for a band to completely turn people from semi pissed to ecstatic dancing is an impressive feat. I don’t see why they are compared to Broken Social Scene, aside from the large number of band members. I think my coworker fell in love with Laura Marin, one of the female vocalist, as he kept on telling me he thought that she was hot.

I’m not very familiar with their music (but I will be soon) so I don’t know what tracks they played per say, but 15 to 20 was stellar, as was set closer “Born Again”.

Definitely check them out.

Coming soon, part 2 of the concert – Simian Mobile Disco.

Click Here to check out photos.

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