Date of show: July 6, 2012
Written by: Chiara DiAngelo
We headed out to The Annex Live for Fade Chromatic’s self-titled EP release party put on by The Indie Machine. If you are unfamiliar with the Toronto pop-rock four-piece, Fade Chromatic is comprised of Jordan Abrams (vocals), Sean Messenger (guitar), Alex Draper-Millan (bass) and Shawn Burgess (drums).
While there was an extensive wait between sets to get the stage and sound ready, their friends were luckily willing to wait. The band finally walked onto the stage shortly after midnight. Bathed in green and red lights, the party began. Full of surprises, the band threw out multiple beach balls for the crowd to bat around; they also cranked up a smoke machine, shot off confetti guns, and invited as many people as could possibly fit up onto the stage to sing along. Their performance is pretty fun on its own and doesn’t necessarily require all these bells and whistles, but this being their EP release party and all, it definitely added to the exciting atmosphere.
They might not be the most experienced band yet, but Abrams is a pretty great frontman, obviously feeding off the crowd’s energy and singing directly to them – often crouching down and touching their hands. It works pretty well as he likely knows everyone in the crowd up front. The real show-stopper of the band though is Burgess on drums. Not only is he a great drummer, he’s just so into it – his hair flails about just as much as his arms!
As for the music, their set showcased their debut EP, including “Wind Up Dead” and the super catchy single “Waiting For The Edge.” To the crowd’s delight, the band came back out for an encore, bringing up their former bassist (who actually recorded the EP with them and met his replacement in Draper-Millan for the first time) to help sing on their cover of The Killers’ “All These Things That I’ve Done.” If there’s one thing for sure, Fade Chromatic know how to have a good time on stage!
You can listen to their EP over on Soundcloud and download their single “Waiting for the Edge” for free. Next up, they have a 3-night stint on the PC Stage at the TNT Waterfront Nightmarket Festival in Toronto July 20-22.
Toronto six-piece ensemble The Cautioneers were the second band of the night. Comprised of Stephen Cooper (guitar, vocals), Amanda Barroso (keys, vocals), Greg O’Toole (guitar), Brandon Johns (bass, trumpet), Eytan Tobin (synth) and Adam Silva (drums, vocals), the band plays really pretty ambient folk-pop. I had caught the tail-end of their in-store set at Of A Kind during NXNE last month, and really enjoying what I had heard, was looking forward to seeing a full set from them.
The combination of keys and synth give them a very light and poppy sound – add in the airy guy-girl vocals of Cooper and Barroso, and the result is just plain loveliness in your ears. The band unfortunately faced some sound issues, which seemed to prevail throughout the night. With such a large number of people on the small stage, they were also limited in the range of movement that was possible. Cooper even commented on the fact that he felt like he was boxed into a cage.
The Cautioneers’ EP Where We Are was released back in November of last year and can be picked up through their Bandcamp – I highly recommend you give it a listen!
Uxbridge, Ontario’s Air Marshal Landing opened the night. Their EP Vitamins just recently dropped, so this was also one of their first opportunities to show off their new tunes. The aspect of their live performance that I enjoy the most is often the double vocals provided from both Matt Simmonds (bass) and Cory Adrian (guitar), as well as the infectious bouncy energy emitted by drummer Graham Drummond.
As the band is still experimenting and evolving into their sound, there was often a different sound to each song. Ones that stood out for me though were the bouncy “Already Dead,” which received the greatest response from the crowd, and “Meteor” with its epic spacey feel and heavy music breaks. The one song of the EP that I just couldn’t get into – “Eve’s Apple” – really came alive that night, especially when Drummond played Simmond’s acoustic guitar with his drum brushes before going back to his own drum kit.
Despite encountering some sound issues and feedback, it was a great start to a night filled with music – the band even brought along a colouring corner for anyone who wanted to unleash their inner artist! How fun is that?
Future History closed out the night, taking the stage after Fade Chromatic. Unfortunately the crowd had significantly diminished for them, especially as their set was pushed back 40 minutes later than expected, so we’ll forgive them if they seemed a bit disgruntled with the situation.
Despite being short a guitar, playing without Dante Berardi Jr., they were still so much heavier than one would first expect from an acoustic-fronted band. Yet they also managed to maintain the melodic instrumentals and lighter vocals from Kevin Ker that makes them so unique to listen to.
Such intensity poured out of Chris Dawe (keys, percussion) who at one point hammered on both keys and the tom during a single song with more passion than is often seen from an entire band. The aggressive urgency displayed during “Hold On Let Go” with the double drumming from both Dawe and drummer Justin Dillon was also a highlight of their set. They held out until their last song to play the expansively massive “Surrounded By Faces,” and it was exactly the note I wanted to end my night on.
Future History also have a recently released record entitled Loss:/self which is available on their Bandcamp.
buying shots for bands 
Awesome review, it was a great show!!