Date of show: February 20, 2013
Written by: Chiara DiAngelo
The former frontman of The Evelyn Room, Toronto-via Newfoundland’s Brad Fillatre released his solo EP For Your Weakness last Fall. For this performance he was backed by a full band, complete with lap steel and brought out the harmonica on a few songs, their set blurring the lines between folk and dark country.
A stirringly haunting raspy voice to Fillatre, the band started slow. The drums came in on second song “I’m Not Alright” and they really seemed to hit their stride by third song, the soulful “Wheels.” Despite his best efforts however, Fillatre wasn’t much of a match against the loud conversations going on at many of the tables throughout his set. It made it difficult for him to attempt any stage banter. A voice that draws you right in if you allow it, we wanted nothing more than to lean in to hear better – that or shush the crowd. His set felt too short set at only six songs, but it offered us a wonderful introduction to his live show that we’ve been looking forward to seeing since his EP came out. Next up, you can catch Fillatre at The Garrison during Canadian Music Week.
A local four-piece rootsy folk band, Young Running closed out the night. Starting with delicate full-band vocal harmonies, their set brought out country twinges with the harmonica and even the accordion at times.
The loudest song of their set, “Waiting For You” featured a round of rowdy group vocals before they brought the volume back down. Unfortunately the din of the overly chatty audience really took over at this point in the night, nearly diminishing all ability to pay full attention to the band on stage. Taking what they could, they still expressed their gratitude just to not be playing to an empty room and that people had stuck around to see them. They closed out their set with the title track from their upcoming EP Coming Home. You can preview one track, “Quiver of Smoke,” over on their Bandcamp before the EP drops next month.
Bringing his quieter pretty love songs to the stage was Hamilton’s Ben Somer. On top of the entertaining stories told through his lyrics on songs such as “Big City Slang,” Somer’s candid self-deprecating humour made him all the more endearing. We couldn’t help but burst out laughing at his comment that he was trying to hide the fact that he is from Hamilton, noting that it is actually a great city – to buy crack. Describing “Beautiful” as his least polite song despite its deceiving name, he stopped part way through as the realization that there were parents in the audience dawned on him. Too late to turn back now, he didn’t try to edit any of the slightly-raunchy lyrics. To make up for it, he followed it up with a “sweet Valentine’s Day song” since the holiday just recently passed. He ended his set with “99 (A Hockey Song).” Besides music, hockey is another pretty large obsession for us so ending his set with this cleverly written tune left a lasting impression.
Having heard some pretty great things about Somer for the past couple of years, he proved to be a musician we definitely want to check out again.
The night began with Will Hunter. From Kingston/Toronto, Hunter sometimes plays with a band and other times, acoustically. On this occasion he was joined by drummer Don, playing the box drum. Not your typical acoustic set, they were more energy and less quiet than expected, which was complemented well with Hunter’s rich vocals on “Young and Hopeless” and “Enough.” Even though he wasn’t able to stir up the singalong he had hoped, their cover of Dylan’s “Wagon Wheel” was a definite highlight to their set. Hunter then created a bit of an uproar from the crowd when he joked their next song was about drinking and driving. Urging them to listen to the lyrics first, he promised they didn’t actually condone the act; this became quite evident once they got into the heartfelt song.
It isn’t often that the first opener has such a large crowd out specifically for them, but Hunter’s ties to the city likely helped fill up the venue early. Don’s parents had even made it out all the way from Sault Ste Marie to see him play for the very first time.
buying shots for bands 
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