Benefit: Live Love Large

Live Love Large Benefit Concert (feat. Gentleman Reg / Kat Burns / Hooded Fang)

Metropolitan Community Church. Friday, January 28, 2011.

It's always rather nice to go to places off the gig map — anything on the other side of the Don Valley always feels like an expedition. And I'm generally enthusiastic about any gig I can get to in a church — they generally have good acoustics and nice architecture, but there's not a lot of reasons for secular types to visit 'em in their regular function. All that said, I might not have headed out to Riverdale for this one were K. not eager for a chance to see Gentleman Reg. And anyway, it was for a good cause, a fundraiser for the Friends For Life Bike Rally, which raises millions of dollars for the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation.

Lots of room in the pews as we arrived, grabbing spaces up front while a folksy guitarist finished off a quiet set for the earlycomers. I'd never been to the MCC before — a nice old church, and it was cool to hear the crowd being welcomed by Rev. Brent Hawkes, the senior pastor, and a true Toronto hero. Looking around as we settled in, I noted it was very much not a typical bar/gig crowd. Besides the charity auctions and fifty-fifty draws and so on, there was also some "local" talent interspersed around the marquee acts — and there were a few times where it felt like two separate events that were a little awkwardly melded together. Perhaps especially so when one of the show's organizers decided to reward herself with a musical set in the middle of everything else.

Once the main event of the night got started, Hooded Fang sounded quite good in the big churchy space, with room to provide some natural reverb to Daniel Lee's voice. He took advantage of the wireless microphone to roam a bit — there was some elbow room given how the multi-tiered stage/pulpit was used to accommodate the band's numbers, with the drums and keybs raised up behind the other bandmembers. It was the same adjusted lineup as the band's New Year's Eve show, with Matt Beckett (ex-Bicycles) subbing in again for bassist April Aliermo.

The band led off with "Land of Giants" from the debut EP, but otherwise played selections from their full-length Album. The crowd was appreciative, but it was more of a sway-in-your-pew sort of vibe than leap-up-and-dance. "Highway Steam" actually got a couple guys up dancing, but despite their efforts to get more folks to join 'em, most people settled for enthusiastic clapping along to the band. Appropriate to the night, the set closed with "Love Song".

Listen to a song from this set here.

Moving from the sanctuary to the church's hall, there was a long break after that, and while the hors d'oeuvres were most welcome, the organizers weren't keeping as tight a rein on the schedule as they might, meaning that Kat Burns' set was cut down to keep things running on time. Leaving the rest of her Forest City Lovers bandmates behind for the occasion, Burns played solo with guitar, leading off with "Tell Me, Cancer". Unfortunately, she'd only play three songs on the night, winding up with "If I Were a Tree". She enlisted the audience to snap their fingers in time for that one, and gave the impression that she was just starting to get warmed up.

Listen to a song from this set here.

After that, it was a quick changeover for headliner Gentleman Reg, playing in trio configuration, with Reg Vermue joined by Kelly McMichael on keybs and Jon Hines on second guitar. They opened with a couple of Jet Black songs ("To Some It Comes Easy" and "Coastline") before mixing things up with a pair of covers. Their arrangement of Stevie Nicks' "Wild Heart" has been around for a while now, and it was joined by a slowed-down run through Sheryl Crow's "If It Makes You Happy", which worked very well in this configuration, with the McMichael singing the chorus as a counterpoint commenting on Vermue's laments in the verses.

Hynes moved over to the drumkit, keeping time on a couple of Vermue's now-large stock of as-yet-unreleased songs. These days, this is really the highlight of any Gentlemen Reg set, given the quality of the material he's building up. After that, the set closed with a quieter version of "We're in a Thunderstorm" before Reg was called back for one more. There were several in the audience shouting for "Boyfriend Song", but he went instead with "You Can't Get it Back", leaving Hynes to handle the guitar as he leaned around while singing.

Listen to a song from this set here.

A good finish to the evening — hopefully much was raised for the cause, and I'm guessing that the organizers learned a lot that will make their next one run more smoothly. Meanwhile, like at most non-bar shows, it was done at a decent hour, and it was just a short walk down to grab the Carlton car to head back homeward.