Results tagged “weare”

Photo of Forest City Lovers by Joe Fuda

Last night, entertainment upstart CiRCA faced one of its toughest challenges yet: how can a club, especially one of its size, impress or even satisfy a massive crowd of rockers in Toronto? Well, Torontoist reader skeptical, it is our pleasure to report to you that it passed with flying colours.

For Toronto's Kids On TV, it's been a long road to get their debut album completed, one that has lasted the better part of three years. For those waiting to hear Mixing Business With Pleasure, released last week by the Blocks Recording Club, there has been the lingering question of how the music would translate from the live show onto tape. For a band that is so infamous for its high-energy, explicit performances, how would the music hold up on its own? Very well, it turns out.

It seems pretty appropriate that we just had Groundhog Day, given that we're feeling a little bit like Bill Murray looking at the concert listings this week. Not only is there very little going on, but most of the bands who are playing seem to be here every week (Apostle of Hustle, The Tragically Hip, Hostage Life, Friendly Rich). Thus, we have nothing left to say about them! So if you've already seen these shows, it is advised that you take this time to rest up because the end of February and month of March are going to be insane for loads of high quality live music.

Empire building is not something you hear about in Canadian art. Ever. Until Friday night.

For live music junkies, the week between Christmas and New Year's can offer very little in terms of quality shows. The folks at The Drake Hotel are trying to remedy the situation with their What's In The Box? week of shows. Running from the 26th to the 30th, the Drake Underground and Lounge are featuring the best acts from 2006. Each day is five dollars and features five bands, leading to a nice "5 Bands 5 Days 5 Dollars" slogan.

So it’s Christmas next week, which means, as per usual, not very much going on in terms of independent cinema in Toronto but shed loads of films shoved out in the multiplexes to get that much sought after cash of people who want to sit in a darkened room. Ironically, of course, all of the festive films came out in about September so they could bleed as much cash out of them as possible, so there’s really very little Christmassy (or Chanukahey, or Kwanzaey) on, unless we count the Bloor showing It's A Wonderful Life at 7 pm tonight (it’s a free screening for members, too).

Looking to check out some live music this week? Here's your listing of what's happening around the city between August 7-13.

With the temperature inching just above freezing this weekend Torontoist might just have to bring out our bike. We miss riding it around town, dodging cabbies, avoiding horse crap (if you're Matt B.) and just feeling the cold Toronto air in our freezing faces. Ah, bike-riding in Winter.

and chanted it regularly around the house - we had no idea what "children of thalidomide" meant, but we sure liked the sound of "space monkey mafia." We occasionally drift into daydreams about being the Uptown Girl of someone's dreams who wants us Just the Way We Are so we can enact Scenes in An Italian Restaurant For the Longest TIme while we're in a New York State of Mind.

Calling Beat, Breaks and Culture the Toronto Electronic Music Festival is a bit of a pickle. Supposing the ‘electronic’ refers to the "computer generated visual performance, film and video" and "live Canadian and international electronic artists," there’s still a real gap between the ‘electronic artist’ tag and the highlights Platinum Pied Pipers. Featuring Detroit’s finest rapper/producer Jay Dee, the PPPipers, along with Jean Grae, graffiti art and the film Freestyle, represent the festival’s strong hip-hop flavour - making the ‘electronic’ aspect an aftertaste. Not to say Denise Benson or Out Hud are an aftertaste, but more so that this is an odd collection of artists to file in one cabinet. But then again, if the worst part of a festival is the name, you have yourself a worthwhile event.