Canadian Music Week

(Joel Plaskett - Mod Club Theatre, 2010)

Last week, Toronto hosted Canadian Music Week. Coincidentally, Toronto also hosted a three-day torrential downpour... I packed my cameras into a cloth bag, wore it around my neck, and zipped a goretex jacket over top so my gear wouldn't get wet. It took me a few interactions with super-friendly stranger before I realized that people thought I was pregnant...some stranger waiting for a bus offered me his hat as I walked past.

I photographed a number of shows for Soundproof Magazine, including Forest City Lovers, Hooded Fang, The Trews, and Low Level Flight (which, for those of you that don't know, is the band of Canadian Idol winner Ryan Malcolm. I didn't know, and the enthusiastic fan next to me questioned my patriotism, then elbowed his girlfriend. "She doesn't know them" he scoffed, jerking a thumb towards the stage; and the two of them laughed and laughed.)

(Peter Elkas -Mod Club Theatre, 2010)

(Joel Plaskett - Mod Club Theatre, 2010)

A lot of great musicians played last week, but I think the highlight of the festival was an acoustic set by Joel Plaskett and Peter Elkas at the Mod Club. It was a whole lot of talent crammed into twenty minutes, clean and professional and clever and wonderful. Certainly worth wearing a pregnant goretex jacket for.