Has gentrification taken over that part of Queen St. West in Toronto where The Drake Hotel resides? Never being in that part of town other than taking the Dufferin South bus down to the Ex, my impression of that part of town was that it was a little rundown, and not so nice, but now it seems, well, quite happening with The Drake and The Gladstone[as I recall both being newly renovated] within steps from each other and there being several quaint art gallery spaces and restaurants which I saw in the area. I'm happy that there's yet another cool area of Toronto I've discovered to check out good live music.
After finding parking, I made my way to The Drake Hotel. The Drake Underground is a great little venue in the basement of The Drake Hotel. It was dimly lit, with a nice bar when you walk in, a slightly raised stage with a red velvet curtain towards the back, comfy benches lining the walls, and what looked like lawn chairs set up across the floor area in preparation for the show. Unfortunately, I got stuck standing up near the left side, but at least I had a ledge to rest my drink on.
Keren Ann and her bandmates quietly came onto the stage around 10 minutes after 10pm. There was a smattering of applause, but I had the impression that most people(like myself) had only a casual familiarity of her and her music. Actually, I've only been checking out her music on the 'net over the last couple of months. Keren Ann took a seat center stage with her guitar and mic, with one gent on piano and keyboards, another on lead guitar, and the third gent on trumpet. There wasn't any percussion or drums at all. The set started off at a languid pace for the first 3 or 4 songs, pleasant with nice melodies and all, but a little sleepy. She sang in both English and French and the first part of the set tended towards sophisticated Parisian pop music with oh-so-quite vocals and a subtle touch of keyboards, echo-ey electric guitar and trumpet. Luckily, as the set progressed things picked up both musically tempo-wise and in terms of more stage banter. She could be a jazzy torch singer one moment, toss off a sultry blues tune the next, turn in a cabaret-style song, then perform a bouncy guitar pop song. The casual acoustic setup, and Keren Ann's subtle-yet-lovely vocals gave the music a freshness, that under different circumstances might come off a little stale and stuffy. Keren Ann seemed to be at a loss for words in terms of stage banter at the beginning of the set but later on seemed to loosen up. She introduced one song as being from the 1930's, a time to which she'd been to(?). It seemed like playful eccentricity but wasn't entirely a mute fact, since in my opinion, her music possessed some old-era sensibilities. She told a humorous anecdote about her bandmate on piano/keyboards who never travelled without the ceramic duck which lay atop the piano and then airport security having him prove that he wasn't trying to smuggle anything inside it; the guy at the piano then turned the duck to the audience to show the taped up area which he had to break at the airport to show that nothing was inside it. :-) The show, including a 2-song encore, lasted just over an hour and all in all was a satisfying Toronto debut. Feist...well, next time for sure.
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