Date of show: May 26, 2012
If you haven’t heard of Stella Ella Ola, where have you been? The 4-piece is comprised of 2 members of Hollerado, brothers Nick and Jake Boyd, on guitar and bass, respectively, as well as Anne Douris (guitar) and Atom Division’s Vince Rice (drums). The band plays short songs (their description via their Facebook), with each band member contributing to vocals. While each song has a bit of a different personality, that garage pop sound takes centre stage.
Their songs are incredibly catchy and fun, which was evident by everyone in the crowd unable to wipe the smiles off their faces for the duration of the set. Douris’ “Peter Sellers” seemed to be a crowd favourite. In fact, by the time the set reached an end, the crowd hollered for more, but the band had already played their entire repertoire. To appease the crowd, Stella Ella Ola played “Peter Sellers” again. The crowd seemed to love the song even more the second time around.
I had never been to CineCycle before, but it’s a neat space for DIY shows. I noticed Stella Ella Ola and co. tried to personalize the space with decorations. These decorations resemble the band’s Bandcamp page, but imagine that all around the stage area. With tons of friends in attendance, Raina Douris and Hollerado’s Dean Baxter and DJing between sets, Stella Ella Ola put on a great debut hometown show.
You can catch Stella Ella Ola at Velvet Underground on June 14th for NXNE. They’ll be on at 9pm.
Graham Wright, known to many as the keyboardist in Tokyo Police Club, produced Stella Ela Ola’s debut EP. He agreed to play the show on the condition that he could play covers with his friends. And really, you can’t go wrong with a talented musician playing a random selection of covers with his other talented musician-friends at a party, can you?
Dangerband kicked off the night. I’ve seen Dangerband once before and I thought they were pretty tight for an obviously young band, but the band seems to have gotten even tighter since I had first seen them. Rane Elliott-Armstrong and Lucas Meliach-Boston exchange time on lead vocals, with Jacob Stanescu on keys, Jackson Beyer on bass and Chai Elliott-Armstrong on drums. The fellas brought out quite the crowd to their early set.
There is a great energy from this band, especially with their catchy tunes. “Sticky” seemed to be a crowd favourite, as well as an anthemic “I Don’t Wanna”. The band ended their set with a cover of blink-182’s “All the Small Things” that had the crowd singing (and screaming) along.
buying shots for bands 
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