Monday Roundup #295

Community notes:

• In addition to the shows listed below, as part of their "Makam Music Forum" Labyrinth Ontario is hosting a pair of Conversation Circles hosted by Jonathan Adjemian and Yang Chen. "These circles will create a space for all those who seek to question common ethnographical frameworks surrounding musical categories." Free to attend at East End United before the shows on September 17th and 18th , more info here.

---

Concert announcements:

Josh Cole: new works for improvising musicians ["solo and duo double bass"] (feat. Evan Palmer & Josh Cole) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-09-14 (Monday). $10 or pwyc. [more info]

Body Help with Hugh Marsh / Pamenar (patio) 2026-09-15 (Tuesday). [more info]

Music Hosted by Karen Ng (feat. Matthew Cardinal / Vicki Venti / Pantayo) / Wenona Lodge 2026-09-15 (Tuesday). $pwyc. [more info]

Josh Sparks’ Digital Bath / Dina’s Tavern 2026-09-16 (Wednesday). $no cover. [more info]

Altered States Artist Showcase (feat. Scott Thomson/Brent Tanemura/Max Stover/William Hunt/Mateos Labbé-Phelan) / Water to Wine 2026-09-16 (Wednesday). $pwyc. [more info]

Toronto Makam Music Forum (feat.Mehdi Rostami + Folios of Turkish Makam [Julian Anderson-Bowes/Saghi Farsijani/Canan Sezgin Geylan/Yahya Geylan/Roa Lee]) / East End United 2026-09-17 (Thursday). $30 general admission, $20 student/arts worker. [more info]

ESP Free Jazz Thursdays (feat. Brent Tanemura/Lauchlin Wood/Jake Bikay/Mason Wallington/Colin Fisher) / Water to Wine 2026-09-17 (Thursday). $pwyc. [more info]

Whitetails (Chapel of Ease / The Cross Sea / LeBarons) / The Garrison 2026-09-18 (Friday). $25, 19+. [FB event]

Glenn Jones (Liam Grant / Colin Fisher) / Le Monde 2026-09-18 (Friday) [more info]

Chanoyu (feat. New Tendencies [Matt Nish-Lapidus] / Germaine Liu & Masahiro Takahashi) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-09-18 (Friday). [more info]

Toronto Makam Music Forum (feat.Sami Abu Shumays’ Umm Kulthum Music Group) / East End United 2026-09-19 (Saturday). $30 general admission, $20 student/arts worker. [more info]

Roger C. Miller (Storey Littleton) / BSMT 254 2026-09-20 (Sunday). $27.36, 19+. [FB event]

Mike DeiCont Trio feat. Eric West & Leland Whitty / Sellers & Newel 2026-09-24 (Thursday). $20 minimum donation. [FB event]

Liquid Architecture: Guitar Night (feat. Lex Feathers / Aranya Khurana / Colin James Gibson / Ryan Kinney) / St. Matthew's Clubhouse 2026-10-03 (Saturday). $10 (cash or e-transfer). [FB event]

FemBots (Jenny Omnichord) / Burdock Music Hall 2026-10-10 (Saturday). $22.60. [tickets + more info]

Is your show missing from this list? Submit it via this form!

---

Shows this week:

Ministry of Phonic Services presents: Back to School Field Trip ["a festival of outdoor experimental sounds and actions"] (feat. Vampire John Coltrane / Bee Solomon / Cows in Rain) / "Porch" 2026-09-07 (Monday). $pwyc. [more info]

More Noise Please! presents Manic Monday (feat. The Nausea / SEHKTOR8 / Crude Flame / Mountain of Woe / Pursuit Grooves / Writhing Deceiver) / BSMT254 2026-09-07 (Monday). $17.31 or pwyc. [tickets + more info]

Not Dead Yet presents (feat. Otto Benson / Potions) / Monarch Tavern 2026-09-08 (Tuesday). $27.82, 19+. [FB event]

Rondo Projects #4 ["the final part of Ehsan Sadigh’s Septet IV/IX"] (feat. Bea Labikova/Chris Pruden/Dhaivat Jani/Ehsan Sadigh) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-09-08 (Tuesday) [more info]

Brodie West presents (feat. Brodie West's Double Basses Quintet [Brodie West/Patrick O'Reilly/Josh Cole/Rob Clutton/Nick Fraser]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-09-09 (Wednesday – early). [more info]

Ministry of Phonic Services presents: Back to School Field Trip ["a festival of outdoor experimental sounds and actions"] (feat. J.Vulgare / Colby Richardson / Fan Wu / Mariana Medellin) / "Mall" 2026-09-09 (Wednesday). $pwyc. [more info]

Alex Lukashevsky ["solostrumsinging + a guest or two"] / Water to Wine 2026-09-09 (Wednesday). $pwyw

Never Was [Brandon Davis/Bea Labikova/Racha Moukalled/Patrick O'Reilly/Adrian Russouw/Joe Sorbara] / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-09-09 (Wednesday). [more info]

ESP Free Jazz Thursdays (feat. Brent Tanemura/Allison Cameron/Gloria Ksimuniv/Blake Howard) / Water to Wine 2026-09-10 (Thursday). $pwyc. [more info]

Kurt Newman presents (feat. Isla & The Sorry Brothers) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-09-10 (Thursday). $pwyc

Ministry of Phonic Services presents: Back to School Field Trip ["a festival of outdoor experimental sounds and actions"] (feat. Brian Abbott's Tone Cathedral / Mani Mazinani & Marilyn Yogarajah / Bea Labikova) / "Creek" 2026-09-11 (Friday). $pwyc. [more info]

Liam Cole (Westelaken / Wishbone Zoë) / The Rat's Nest 2026-09-11 (Friday). $15/pwyc

Audiopollination (feat. Andrew Kobus to go/Xukasia/Janel Jones / flower club/Rohee Uberoi / Noah Campbell/Neal Armstrong/Aisha Sasha John / The Not Michael Lynns) / Array Space 2026-09-11 (Friday). $pwyc/$10 (notaflof). [more info]

Musica Universalis (feat. Colin Fisher / William Hunt / Jack Johnston / Cal Adam) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-09-11 (Friday) [more info]

William Hunt [solo piano live recording] / Sellers and Newel 2026-09-12 (Saturday). $15 minimum donation. [more info]

Marker Starling (Tean Dream) / BSMT 254 2026-09-12 (Saturday). $22.84, 19+. [FB event]

Lucid Lounge Saturdays (feat. Ryan Driver/Andrew Downing/Blake Howard) / Water to Wine 2026-09-12 (Saturday). $pwyc. [more info]

Toronto Improvisers Orchestra / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-09-13 (Sunday – noon). $pwyc. [more info]

Marilyn & Friends (In the style of Ayal) (feat. Sporesong [Adwoa & Marilyn] / Will Hunt / Nick Flanagan / A Hectic Space [Nilan/Roya/Vic/Marilyn]) / The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge) 2026-09-13 (Sunday – 2:30 p.m.). [FB event]

Elastic Recordings Presents: Inhabiting & Releasing Spontaneous Structures – A Concert & Workshop (feat. The Plastic Waste Band / Michael Davidson & Bjorn Kriel / Aline Homzy) / Annette Studios 2026-09-13 (Sunday – workshop @ 3:00 p.m., concert @ 8:00 p.m.). $20-$25 concert only (advance), $25-$40 concert + workshop (advance), $free (kids 12 + under). [FB event]

Ministry of Phonic Services presents Back to School Field Trip: Installation Garden ["a festival of outdoor experimental sounds and actions"] (feat. various artists) / "Ravine" 2026-09-13 (Sunday). $pwyc. [more info]

Mayme Joach [Alex Lukashevsky/Jack Johnson/Nick Fraser] (Jacko Packo) / Dina's Tavern 2026-09-13 (Sunday). $13

---

It happened this week...

• ...on September 11, 2009 at Rolly's Garage (Optical Sounds' Back to Cool Party).

The Disraelis - The Bitter Ash

• ...on September 12, 2009 at SPK Polish Combatants Hall.

Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Guests - Eoleyo

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Sunday Playlist #29

Sunday Playlist #29

Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Guests - Eoleyo

Cro-Mags - We Gotta Know

Fucked Up - Police

Anagram - Leads to Nowhere

The Soupcans - I Don't Wanna be a Soupcan

Join the The Soupcans and Teenanger for a tour send-off show on Tuesday (September 25, 2012) at Mây Café. Thighs open. (That is descriptive of the opening band; your reactions may vary.)

---

Sunday Playlist is a semi-regular feature that brings back some of this blog's previously-posted original live recordings for an encore. You can always click the tags below to see what I originally wrote about the shows these songs came from.

2009 In Review: Best Concerts (Part II)

Part I of this retrospective can be found here. As with the first part, clicking on the headers will take you to my full review from the show.

The D'Urbervilles / Forest City Lovers

The Theatre Centre (Summerworks Festival Music Series). 2009-08-13 (Thursday)

An extra-long wait out on the sidewalk before getting into the stuffy basement space of The Theatre Centre did nothing to diminish the joy of this unique gig. A short set from Forest City Lovers melded seamlessly into The D'Urbs storming the stage, West Side Story style and playing a few songs before the bands took a break and emerged, seven players wide, in a combined joint force to play a collaborative set. "I wondered to myself whether FCL's more delicate edges might get overwhelmed by the D'Urbs' rollicking energy. As it shook out, the bands'd put enough thought into this to avoid that pitfall, and managed to put the extra hands into more texture rather than more volume. [...] The bands, though dripping in sweat, were clearly having a ball." The sort of thing that you go back and forth on after the fact — it'd be so cool to see that happen again, but as a unique singularity it's all the more precious.

Sometimes, stepping back to find that sweet spot in the venue's sound-field takes a back seat to just, like, being right there up front, so my recordings from the night aren't immaculate, but they get something of it across.

The Dutchess & The Duke

Bicycle Film Festival afterparty, Studio Gallery. 2009-08-22 (Saturday)

Another sweaty night, in a show at a ramshackle semi-venue, had an enjoyable undercard¹, but then I was taken by surprise by the headliners, a band I knew pretty much nothing about: "not long into the set, I realize I'm being completely fucking blown away. R&B in the sense that early Stones or Them or The Animals were R&B, the band had a batch of excellently-written songs, delivered here with off-the-cuff casualness blearily sagging into exhausted raggedness. It really felt like there was zero distance between performer and audience: shakers and tambourines were shared around, we sweated like they sweated, and the drummer's bottle of Johnny Walker Red got passed around so everyone could get a swig. By the end of the set, the walls were dripping with condensation and guitars were well nigh impossible to keep in tune. A singalong of 'I Am Just a Ghost' capped the set — one of the best shows of the year."

Check out recordings from The Dutchess and The Duke, as well as the night's other bands, here.

Wyrd Visions

Bite Your Tongue 1, The Guild 2009-09-06 (Saturday)

This entire show — sending the downtown-bound concert crowd through Scarborough to the beautiful bluffs at the Guild Inn — was a pretty special time, but this transporting set was the most affecting: "Playing on a double-necked guitar, with occasional accents from a looping pedal, his songs were droney folk rambles — folk in the olde Brittania sort of way. Imagine Jandek as a minstrel singing songs of the boggy dew, and you're kinda on the right track. The fact that his set, just over a half-hour, consisted of four songs indicates that his tunes are designed to unspool themselves in their own dreamtime. All of these elements could go so wrong, and could veer to the unlistenable or the precious. But in these circumstances — the near-dark and the first stars winking on in the sky; the fecund descending dampness; crickets chirping in the background — it was perfect, almost sublime."²

If I dare say so myself, I think my recording from Wyrd Visions' set is rather good. My other recordings from the evening are pretty nice, too.

Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Guests

SPK Polish Combatants Hall 2009-09-12 (Saturday)

An Ethiopian New Year's special, with a mish-mash crowd merging folks from the Ethiopian community with grizzled old leather-jacket punks and younger Wavelength types, all drinking strong Polish beer and getting funky to a Dutch punk band backing a musical legend. "Most of all, throughout, it was sax heaven. Mekuria, now in his seventies, plays with a rich, groovy tone filled with vital emotion. There is undoubtedly tonnes to be said about the technical side of his craft, his technique, and how he bridges Ethiopian and European styles, but while playing with such vitality it's hard not just to slip into the richness of it. There were no few times where I just wanted the song to keep going, which isn't always (usually?) the way I feel in the midst of a ninety minute set."

I got a decent, not great, recording of that set, but it's still plenty groovy.

The Vic Chesnutt Band

Lee's Palace. 2009-11-07 (Saturday)

Damn damn damn. This show should have been memorable for different reasons. For pairing a gifted and unique songwriter with a powerful band, including members of the Silver Mt. Zion & Tra-La-La Band and guitar hero Guy Picciotto, adding depth and widescreen sweep to his songs for an intense ninety minutes. Or for the laconic, deadpan wit that Vic Chesnutt exhibited on stage. But now, all I mostly think about is "Flirted With You All My Life", when he sang, "O Death, clearly I'm not ready yet." And then, not so many weeks later, changed his mind about that.

R.I.P. Vic Chesnutt, 1964-2009. His music will be remembered; my recording is here.

The Hidden Cameras

The Opera House. 2009-12-05 (Saturday)

In my older, crankier years, I'm becoming increasingly resistant to large-venue shows, so that this show at the not-well-loved Opera House was one of my favourites speaks to the band's talent for scaling their spectacle to the size of the room and showing all challengers how to attain collective glee. Let's see: choir, dancers, banners, audience participation, the band in the crowd and the crowd on the stage. Add to that a delicious opening set from Gentleman Reg³, who'd be one of the many extras on hand for the main act, and this was an excellent night out, that made me feel, upon leaving the venue, optimistic somehow.

This was a treat for more than just the ears, but you can check out a track here.

---

¹ Including fine sets from The Bitters and now-already-defunct local shoegazers Heaven, as well as Austin spazz-punks Mutating Meltdown, the band that I was actually sorta there to see.

² An honourable mention should be made here to this concert's sequel, Bite Your Tongue 2, held in November at circus training school Centre of Gravity, which was also an excellent time. Especially memorable was Corpusse's maximally-committed electro-metal. Note to the folks at Bite Yr Tongue: more, please.

³ Gentleman Reg's live work as a whole throughout the year merits him a special citation on this list as well — I can't pick one set, but his many local shows throughout the year, with his band building up steam from month to month, were a definite highlight.

Recording: Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex

Artist: Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Guests

Song: Eoleyo

Recorded at SPK Polish Combatants Hall, September 12, 2009.

Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Guests - Eoleyo

My notes for this gig can be found here.

Gig: Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex

Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Guests / Daniel Nebiat

SPK Polish Combatants Hall. Saturday, September 12, 2009.

After a fine day spent tromping around the AGO and wandering the cityscape with K., headed over to the concrete bunker on Beverley for a highly-anticipated show, to see Getatchew Mekuria, the Ethiopian saxophone titan — and on the celebration of the Ethiopian New Year, no less. By a funny coincidence, ran into some of K's friends right after my arrival, so a chance to compare gig stories and so on. Looking around, as the General Chaos light show swirled above the stage, it was building up to be the sort of mixed crowd I was expecting, with different types all drawn to different elements of the bill.

The first night's opener was local musician and Wavelength veteran Daniel Nebiat. Born and raised in Eritrea before coming to Toronto, Nebiat plays an amplified version of a krar, a traditional lyre-like instrument. The unusual looking contraption was best described by the artist himself, who noted that it wasn't unlike the back of a chair. To introduce the crowd to the krar, Nebiat opened with one song solo before his band (keyb, bass) joined him, where the sound went from folksy to funky. Played with a plectrum, Nebiat coaxed a variety of sounds from his krar, including some funky chicken scratches that fit in well with the upbeat, dance-y music. Not quite repetitive — let's say circular: if you weren't listening for the lyrics, you'd best be getting to dancing. With that ba-doomp, ba-doomp rhythm familiar in Ethiopian and Eritrean music, it was easy to start moving along in a sort of club-footed skanking motion — and rather hard to resist. Most of the songs came as extended grooves — with the band, he played a half-dozen songs over an hour, a couple reaching to ten and fifteen minutes. Soon enough, you could see Jonny Dovercourt and Lullabye Arkestra dancing up front with the members of the Eritrean community, the grizzled old punks in leather jackets and the music nerds moving only slightly more hesitantly, everyone sloshing around their bottles of strong Polish beer. In theory, this is how we all like to think Toronto is supposed to work, and it's always rather nice when it does. A really strong set, and when it was done, I stopped at the merch table to grab a copy of his disc.

Listen to a track from this set here.

I've been lucky enough to have seen The Ex before, last time they rolled through town, and that was a pretty great show. For this, I was daring to expect even more, given what I'd heard from their collaborations with Getatchew Mekuria. Hitting the stage, the band tore right into it, ripping it up with an upbeat number, the flurry of the horn section followed by Terrie and Andy launching into a two-guitar interlocking attack, stepping towards each other as if about to engage in a joust.¹ In a ninety-minute set, the band knew how to build up and release the tension, alternating the awesome explosions with intense quieter moments. After a two-song, barn-burning opener, the horns took over for a quieter, more subtly groovy number. A couple songs with Kat on vocals also were an effective switch-up.

But most of all, throughout, it was sax heaven. Mekuria, now in his seventies, plays with a rich, groovy tone filled with vital emotion. There is undoubtedly tonnes to be said about the technical side of his craft, his technique, and how he bridges Ethiopian and European styles, but while playing with such vitality it's hard not just to slip into the richness of it.² There were no few times where I just wanted the song to keep going, which isn't always (usually?) the way I feel in the midst of a ninety minute set. One to remember — one of the best gigs of the year.

Listen to a track from this set here.

---

¹ I was left somewhat confused with trying to figure out the fellow singing was, and wondering what had happened to G.W. Sok, only to find out after the fact that Sok has apparently left the band to focus on his other art projects. Filling his big shoes was Arnold de Boer, who pulled off the feat well enough, though perhaps without panache.

² I spotted Carl Wilson doing just that — eyes closed, head bowed and just listening, looking like he might shed a tear of joy as Mekuria played unaccompanied.