Toronto – “Hi, we’re the openers.” This was the rather unassuming introduction given by Daniel Brandon Allen, singer/guitarist for Indian Handcrafts, who were indeed the openers for this show. Their music, however, is anything but unassuming. It could best be described as down and dirty stoner rock. With their thick, driving riffs and vocals half shouted and half sung, they join a long line of hard hitting duos that make a lot of racket – Lullabye Arkestra, Lightning Bolt, Japandroids, godheadSilo – and prove that less can often sound like more. They even threw in a cover of Nirvana’s “Negative Creep” for good measure.

Between acts, I decided to wander outside for a bit and grab a snack (fascinating story, I know) and when I returned shortly before Chicago’s Russian Circles took the stage, I was surprised to find that the crowd near the front had grown considerably.  I did not know these guys were as popular as they are, but when you consider the reception that bands like Isis, Mogwai, or Explosions In The Sky have garnered in the past here in Toronto, I suppose it’s not too surprising that their particular brand of instrumental post rock/metal would go over well.  And Russian Circles did not disappoint.  They played a fairly long set that was trippy when it needed to be and heavy when it needed to be.

Speaking of trippy, I found myself somewhat entranced by the shadow of the drummer that appeared on the ceiling as the band played.  Probably realizing that having no frontman means there’s no one to naturally grab the audience’s attention and also realizing that  Dave Turncrantz is a powerhouse drummer who is something to see, the band have made him the centrepiece of their show, both literally and figuratively.  With lots of backlighting (hence the shadow on the ceiling) and the other two members content to just play, Turncrantz  is the de facto focal point.  Not that the other two members were slouches by any stretch of the imagination, but were there a lesser drummer (or even just a different drummer), this show would not quite be the same.

The only gripe I might have about this show was the encore.  Now I have mixed feelings about encores in general, but if you’re going to do it, go for it.  That means an encore should be something that hits the audience right away and goes for the gut, so to speak.  Not so for Russian Circles.  After taking the stage, they played maybe a minute or two of kind of ambient sounds.  Now I realize that many of their songs do have a bit of a slow build to them, but it just didn’t seem right.  Maybe I was just impatient and maybe it’s a moot point since the song (once it really got going) was a great way to end things off.  Regardless, it was  a solid show.