Gig: Festival on Bloor

Jenny Omnichord / $100 (duo)

Tranzac Stage, Festival on Bloor. Sunday, June 14, 2009.

On a fine Sunday, headed down to the Annex for the Annual "Festival on Bloor", the street shut down from Spadina to Bathurst. As in years past, the Tranzac was sponsoring a stage set up at the corner of Bloor and Brunswick, with a variety of musical acts throughout the afternoon. Despite some names worth seeing, the stage was a little underadvertised, and I think was more a source of entertainment for people streaming by than those who were coming out of the way just to see someone play. Following on the heels of a choir, Ian and Simone took the stage for a duo set of $100 material. Those who came down (or those just randomly wandering by) were rewarded not only with the airing out of the standards ("Fourteen Hour Day", "No Great Leap") but with some new material. The first (entitled "Courting My Heartache"?) was presented as a sequel to "Black Gold", being played in front of an audience "for the fourth time"¹. The finale was the premiere of "Four Grand Short" — "this is about the recession", explained Simone of a song about life's unappreciated and undercompensated work. Pared back to guit and vox, the focus is on the lyrics, giving a chance to show that $100's songs are solid all the way down. Always a pleasure.

After heading up the street to see Pink Mountaintops at Sonic Boom, wandered back down to Brunswick. Quite a fine day out — the sun felt surprisingly intense² and made me a little drowsy as I pulled up a curb. Ended up sitting by the cool kids as Jenny Mitchell got set up on stage. Mitchell, a member of the Barmitzvah Brothers and The Burning Hell, was playing in her her solo guise of Jenny Omnichord — named after the titular instrument. The omnichord's percolating electronic rhythms brought to mind something like Edna Boil playing "Popcorn"³, though fortunately, the personality behind the songs elevated them above kitsch, with Mitchell's smiling vox and plainspoken songs (about Elvis impersonators, epistolary skeletons and pregnancy) keeping things grounded. A pleasant set of homespun songs that put me in a good frame of mind to head back home and do laundry.

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¹ So perhaps those in attendance for Friday's Horseshoe gig got a full-band version?

² Though not so infernoriffic as the same festival a couple years back when Laura Barrett, Sunparlour Players, The Bicycles and Ninja High School all graced that same stage on a boiling hot afternoon that just about melted me.

³ Um, the synth-pop instrumental, not the James Brown jam.