What better prelude to an evening of South Asian musical entertainment than going to a Chinese buffet! Ok, so I went for some good eats with a friend at a Chinese buffet then headed down to see the festivities at Yonge-Dundas Square. It was an interesting night of cultural entertainment. To be honest, I was most interested in seeing the DJ influenced artists like State of Bengal who I'd read good things about.
I made it in time to catch part of gadjet goes bollywood! w/ the Samba Squad (featuring bolly-dances by Tarana and Sankriti). The performance featured some DJ-curated beats with additional instrumentation at times from a vocalist and some nice rhythmic drumming from a member of the Samba Squad. There were two dance troupes to perform during this set. The group that performed second was Sankriti who were an all-South Asian group of four females who performed a dance that was very Bollywood(at least what I understand to be Bollywood). Interesting although not necessarily what I'm into. The first group of four females was Tarana and they performed what was by my accounts a belly-dance routine. [Question: is belly dancing part of South Asian culture]. The girls looked more Arabic than South Asian. My confusion aside, they performed a great routine. And wow, the two girls(who looked like twin sisters) in the middle of the stage were gorgeous.
Before Shiva Sound System came on, co-host Jugular, The Human Beat Box, displayed some of his skills for the crowd including his ability to carry a tune while beatboxing. He was pretty good especially his interpretations of parts of songs by Usher and Michael Jackson. He could only perform so much since he was having a little trouble with losing his voice.
Shiva Sound System, from London, provided a DJ set of house and trance beats, with bits of big beat influences, augmented somewhat with a gent playing this special drum. The DJ-curated beats were good I guess, although I found the drummer's abilities to be somewhat lacking, compared to the guy from the Samba Squad. However, even the DJ's beats sort of grew tiresome and I was just hoping that State of Bengal would come on soon.
I was interested in seeing Stage of Bengal because I'd read that he'd mentor several people, some who went on to form such artists as Asian Dub Foundation who I admire very much. Also, reading comparisons of State of Bengal to Thievery Corporation also piqued my interest. State of Bengal(on turntables) was accompanied by a Ms. Renu Hussain who played drums and percussion. Renu was a much better drummer in my opinion than the gent playing with Shiva Sound System. I also thought that State of Bengal's beats, samples and mixing were much more accomplished as he weaved in various influences ranging from hip hop, house, and South Asian influences in a way that was very organic. It was too bad that as the evening had progressed less people were sticking around so that by the time State of Bengal hit the stage the crowd wasn't nearly as full as when the belly dancers were on stage. I'll admit that things started to sound same-y after a while, and the background screen projections, as cool as they were, only went so far to keep my attention. In fact, had State of Bengal not had Renu Hussain on drums, watching him may have been mindnumbingly boring. I guess DJ music either works better as headphone music or in a dance club.
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The band who'd walk a thousand miles and fall at our door, The Proclaimers, will return to Toronto for a show at Lee's Palace on September 14th. Tickets $26.50. Ouch. [from Rotate This]
The Creeping Nobodies' MySpace site indicates they'll be playing a couple of shows in Toronto in July including the Rivoli on July 2nd(w/ Picastro, They Shoot Horses + others TBC) and Sneaky Dee's on July 9th(w/ Pony Da Look + Idiots).
Ben Folds will perform a live session for BBC 6 Music's Gideon Coe, today(May 30th). Sessions start around the 20:40:00 mark(about 8:40 London, England time or about 2:40 Eastern Standard Time). Sessions are usually archived in the future.
Tim Burgess of The Charlatans will perform a live session featuring songs from his new solo project, on Morning Becomes Eclectic(11:15 PST/2:15 EST), tomorrow May 31st.
A glance at Rotate This' website shows that advance tickets are selling out for many upcoming Toronto shows. Soundscapes and other outlets(including, of course, Ticketmaster) probably have tickets for many of these shows but if Rotate This is already selling out of its advance tickets(like Dinosaur Jr which just went on sale a couple of days ago), I guess I shouldn't dawdle about buying tickets soon. I just have to make my mind up about which ones. Hmmm. Or maybe I should just take a break and start fresh in July.
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