Date of show: May 25, 2012
Written by: Chiara DiAngelo
To celebrate the release of their 2-song cassette tape (7” vinyl to come in the summer), Sandman Viper Command came home from a month-long tour to throw a pizza party. Originally from Burlington, Rob Janson (vocals, guitar), Dan Reardon (guitar), Aaron Harvey (bass), and Matt Meyer (drums) relocated to Toronto last year and it has definitely served them well. This was one of the most technically tight and energetic sets I’ve seen of the band, even compared to the last time I caught them during CMW, just a few months ago.
Playing garage rock with fuzzed-out guitars, the band started with “Clean Inside,” the B-side to their new single. I’m not sure if it was because I was on Harvey’s side of the stage, but for the first couple songs, I just couldn’t get over how great the bass lines sounded. The girls up front may have agreed, as he received more than a few cat calls early on. The crowd was quickly worked up as the band launched into their set mainstays, including “Oh Yeah, It’s Fusion,” “Metal I Spent” and “Strawberry Quick.”
At this point in the show, someone came up on stage and pronounced himself as “a longtime listener but first time heckler” and then (reading my mind) demanded to know where the pizza was. A band of their word, the food then arrived with a couple guys coming up on stage with pizza boxes and passing them out to the front crowd. I’m not really sure if there was enough to make it to the back, but that was the last thought on my mind as I happily munched away on a Fresh Slice (*Note to bands: a well-fed blogger is a happy blogger). They previewed some new songs as the soundtrack to our chewing, including one about the future, when all our TVs come to life. Maintaining a similar vibe to their current material, I’d say the future looks pretty bright for this band.
Ryan from The Exports then joined the band on stage, taking the keys for the last song and reason for the party: the sun-drenched lazy slacker-rock summertime single “Feel is Good.” Powell, along with numerous others ended up back up on stage as well to rowdily sing along and spray beer all over the sweating crowd.
Glad to be at home after a month away, it was pretty obvious that the crazy rioting crowd shared the sentiment. Not ready to let the night come to an end, Sandman came back out for one more song, covering Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak.” It was quite the way to close out such a fun show.
Toronto band July Talk might have caused a momentary case of deja vu when they first walked on stage. With a solid portion of Eamon McGrath’s band – including McGrath himself! – also in July Talk, it was almost like it was Thursday night again. That is until bombshell Leah Fay (vocals) strutted on stage, dressed like Sandy in Grease, complete with black catsuit and cigarette.
Her get-up was fitting as the band plays a style of garage-y rock that would fit right into the “Grease Lightning” scene in the movie. With guitarist Peter Dreimanis sharing lead vocals with Fay on this project, the combination of his grizzled, road-worn voice (honestly the deepest voice I’ve ever heard, – think Tom Waits-ish) with her sweet and sultry one was just incredible.
One of the most engaging aspects of their set has to be the dynamic between Dreimanis and Fay. Alternating between “can’t get enough of you” chemistry and squabbling siblings, they were constantly either making eyes and touching one another, or seemingly at each other’s throats. Fay was quite the seductress while Dreimanis, constantly beating on his chest, played the part of a man possessed to a T. The best moment was likely when Dreimanis took the keys on one song, and Fay come over and poured beer into his mouth before joining him in pounding away on the keys. Theatrics combined with a solid performance from all band members made for a really entertaining set.
They saved my favourite song – “Paper Girl,”with its lyric “keep your paper heart away from me” for last. McGrath took the keys on this one but could not sit still, constantly standing up and kicking out his leg. Noting that it was their last show with McGrath, his replacement, Ian Docherty joined the band on guitar for a song. Despite Fay’s desire to “keep them both,” they acknowledged and accepted that it was time for McGrath to go out and take over the world on his own. It’ll be a shame for them to lose McGrath, but judging by how packed (and rowdy!) the Horseshoe was for their set, they have a solid group of followers in the city and will be just fine.
From Chicago, IL, Sandman’s tourmates Archie Powell & The Exports were the second band of the night. Comprised of Archie Powell (vocals, guitar) and The Exports: Ryan Export (keys, guitar), Adam Export (bass, vocals) and RJ Export (drums), the band plays what can only be described as really fun rock and roll. With clever lyrics to boot, I was sold right from the start.
After kicking off their set with a couple of songs off their 2010 release Skip Work, they went into new tunes from their most recent album, Great Ideas in Action. Highlights of their set included “Shooting Spree” and “Sticky Buttons.” With Ryan often going back and forth between the keys and guitar, it gave these songs a real 70’s rock combined with sock hop feel that I was just really into. The gang vocals on the super catchy chorus of “Crazy Pills” had the crowd dancing for this out-of-town band.
Making the night more special, friends from their hometown had flown in from Chicago and bought them shots while they were on stage. Powell even named the night “Gin Friday” – a band after my own heart! Thanking the boys of Sandman Viper Command for having them out, they went into their last song “Only So Much You Can Do” that ended with Powell spinning out of control and stumbling off stage. Perhaps one too many shots were had during their set…?
A great start to a Friday night, Archie Powell & The Exports are one of the few non-Canadian bands I’ve seen in the last little while and one you definitely don’t want to miss the next time they come through your town.
buying shots for bands 
Leave a Reply