The Midway State @ Tattoo Rock Parlour

The Midway State @ Tattoo Rock Parlour
The Midway State @ Tattoo Rock Parlour
Originally uploaded by vasquezr


I had been wanting to catch The Midway State since early summer. I had the opportunity to see them play at The Virgin Festival this year and was really impressed so when I found out they were playing @ the Tattoo Rock Parlour in Toronto I made sure to be there. The Midway State are a foursome consisting of, Nathan Ferraro (vocals/piano), Daenen Bramberger (drums) both from ski country Ontario, and Mike Wise (guitar), Mike Kirsh (bass) both from the GTA. The group has been experiencing success with their single "Never Again" from the album Holes released early this year. They started off with Fireflies for the eager Tattoo crowd and played through a few other songs from their album, "Unaware", "Change For You", "Can't Stop Waking Up To You" and others. Being from the Barrie area and spending quite a bit of time in ski country over the last few years I can't help but hear those references in their music about snow coming down and puffy white coats. Although their sound is dominated by Nathan's vocals and piano band mate Mike Wise showed off some skills during the band's cover of No Doubt's "Don't Speak" to the pleasure of their fans.

Sam Roberts Band @ The Danforth Music Hall

Sam Roberts Band @ Danforth Music Hall
Sam Roberts Band @ The Danforth Music Hall
Originally uploaded by vasquezr


The Sam Roberts Band took Toronto by storm playing four nights out of five at the Danforth Music Hall. I had the pleasure of being there for two of the four nights. The first night was mainly photography as I did not have much time to stick around to see much more of the show. However I was lucky enough to catch the whole show on Saturday ( the last night of the stint ).

I had seen the band earlier this year @ Bala and have to say I found these shows to have a lot heavier sound and feel to them. The band powered through the set which included the title track to their latest album Love At The End Of The World, With A Bullet, and the bilingual No Sleep. They made sure to play crowd favourites Hard Road, Where Have All the Good People Gone? Don't Walk away Eileen, Bridge To Nowhere and Them Kids. However, the big highlights of the show were the saxophone assisted Brother Down and the full out rock blitz Mind Flood.

The Sam Roberts Band came to show Toronto what Rock n Roll is all about ... now if only we knew how to dance.

The Trews @ The Mansion Night Club, Barrie, ON

The Trews @ The Mansion Night Club
The Trews @ The Mansion Night Club
Originally uploaded by vasquezr


The Trews will be playing a couple of acoustic shows in Japan this week. As a result the people of Barrie were treated to a special warm up acoustic show. The house was packed which was quite nice to see as it was the first time I've ever seen it that full since the renovations. The anticipation was met by a solid intimate set by the east coasters. These guys always put on a great show and the acoustic version was no different. Even acoustically they were able to rock out to crowd favourites like So She's Leaving and Not Ready to Go. Other special highlight were the renditions of the very popular Man of Two Minds and Ishmael & Maggie. Overall a great treat for Barrie.