Toronto – My Thursday plan went like this: I knew I wanted to be at the Wrongbar for Glass Candy, so I figured I’d slowly make my way south and west (or..south by southwest..haha). The Painted Lady was my second stop of the night (after Young Galaxy’s bubbles/lights/smoke visual spectacle which I’ll let Gary review). I had never really heard any of Smile Smile‘s music, but this is one of the cases where I decided to go see a band based on their name. How can a band named Smile Smile resulted in a good time?
Smile Smile are a Dallas based duo, consisting of guitarist Ryan Hamilton and pianist Jencey Hirunrusme. Both share vocal duties and their sound can be described as folky music. Their music wasn’t as happy as the name indicates, there were a lot of quiet ballads that gave out a sense of sadness. Then I read the PR email, which was:
“Comprised of singer/guitarist Ryan Hamilton and singer/pianist Jencey Hirunrusme, Smile Smile’s music chronicles the personal lives of Hamilton and Hirunrusme, two musicians who fell in love and started a band. The pair released their first album (BLUE ROSES) while planning their lives together: they got engaged, shared a home and looked towards the future as a married couple. Along the way infidelity ensued, the dream crumbled and the two ended their relationship, but not their musical ties”
How awkward must that be? I’m glad I didn’t know this before the show or I would have spent the whole set analyzing any subtle looks or interactions with each other.
Their set was pretty good, I thought they had good vocal interplay and their tunes were pretty catchy. At one point, Ryan asked the crowd if someone played guitar and they quickly taught her the song and then he let her play while he resumed singing duties. It was a nice intimate touch, although it had me questioning the complexity of their music writing if someone can just step in and resume guitar duties. I doubt Bernard Butler would have done that.
