I thought I had a packed schedule this night, but it turns out I had only chosen bands to see at 11pm, since I was tired from traveling all day to farmland, I figured that was okay since I was starting super early.
We got caught in massive traffic coming back to the city and I was cutting it really close to Human Human’s 8pm start time at Supermarket.
I raced in the house, did the ‘key area’ shower, you all know what I mean there, and hopped on my bike and raced up Lansdowne to College Street, only to discover that traffic was closed off due to the festival happening in Little Italy I forgot about, CURSES! I quickly re-routed to Dundas and by the time I showed up at Supermarket it was 8:05pm and I was a disgusting sweat-ball. Luckily for me they hadn’t started the set yet!
Human Human: Not new on the music making scene, they started together in 2005 under the name Girl, but have now reformed as Human Human. These guys only have a 4 song EP currently out, and if you’re like me, you’ll have listened to those four songs about 50 times each. These guys are a perfect mix of Echo and the Bunnymen, Pulp and Psychedelic Furs all put together. Their sound could fit perfectly into any John Hughes films right in those key moments where the guy gets the girl, or Judd Nelson pumps his fist in the air. A four piece, all clad in white jeans and military-esque white button up jackets, they emerged on stage to play to a crowd of maybe 10 people. I was very happy to be one of those ten. I wondered to myself how much these guys practiced because their shit was TIGHT.
The marching band drums, the synth perfectly placed to accent the excellent guitar and bass work, the songs are larger than life, and were definitely way too large for that small venue and amount of people. When Human Human play, you can picture them on stage at an outdoor music festival playing to 10,000 people and, imagining that in a room with just 10 people there, you know they’re destined for success.
Their build-ups infect you, and you can get lost in their music, just completely unaware of what’s going on as they hypnotize you with their addicting pop sounds and hooks. I cannot stress enough checking these guys out before it costs a cheap arm and a leg to see them.
After Human Human it was clear I wouldn’t enjoy anything half as much as that. I wanted to stick around at that showcase but my friends were headed to the Painted Lady and I was tired of going it solo so…
Teen Violence: First off, excellent band name. Teen Violence was already on Painted Lady’s very small stage when I arrived. They were a throwback to the California surf-punk days of the 90’s mixed with heavy 60’s influence. Their songs were short, to the point and a lot of fun. Had it been a bigger space with a bigger crowd with some bigger drinks in me, it would’ve made for a good dance party.
After Teen Violence, the night became sort of a bust. We headed down to the A&C pop up to see Majical Cloudz, but he had cancelled due to voice problems and wanting to do his set at BLK Box as best he could. We all parted ways and I decided to see what was happening at Great Hall/BLK Box.
I managed to catch the last two songs by Chad Valley, which were parfait, and sensual. Headed upstairs to catch a bit of a solo act, caught a really odd but hilarious naked dance party, I would post the photos of that here, but.. I’ll save you the trauma.
Planned on heading to the Garrison after, but NXNE tweeted how big the line was and I ended up passing out to Star Wars at home.