Great gig at the Silver Dollar Room last nite, featuring Tee Pee recording artists Naam, ELKS and Toronto’s own Quest For Fire. It’s not every day that Toronto sees a heavy psych triple bill of this magnitude. Hell, I might even hafta go back to the last Tee Pee tour: Witch, Earthless–and local openers Quest For Fire, back in 2008. (Mind you, they weren’t signed to Tee Pee when they took the stage; it sorta happened afterwards.)
That said, the local openers on this evening, a female-fronted outfit called TLP, probably won’t be the next Toronto band to sign stateside. There was something strange about them, like all the pieces were there, but they didn’t quite fit together. Definitely more Tea Party than Tee Pee, to be sure.
ELKS was the first touring band to take the stage, a fiery four-piece that sorta reminded me of Saviours, who I had the pleasure of seeing last Tuesday, albeit rawer, and with a little more groove. While vocal duties were split between their bass player and their two guitarists, they all had the same gravelly metal voice, with the four-stringer sounding the most like Lemmy. He should really start tilting his mic downwards, if you ask me.
Though QFF was originally scheduled to go on next, logic would have it that the local band goes last so people don’t leave. That said, their crowd was slightly smaller, since Naam is a real tough act to follow. I’ve been hearing that name for a while, but never really gave ’em the time of day, so they blew me away on their first impression. A little like Earthless, actually, a psych jam power trio, but slightly more structured, with some singing as well. They also had a keyboardist on stage with ’em, which was a nice added touch, though the keys often got lost under the big heavy riffs.
While a few people did leave “early”–it was well after midnite when Quest For Fire started their psychedelic journey–there was still a pretty decent crowd that stuck around. They were treated to another near-perfect performance from one of Toronto’s best heavy rock bands, QFF blending the familiar sounds of “Bison Eyes,” “Greatest Hits by God” and “In the Place of a Storm” with some lengthier explorations that could very well be new tuneage (to be honest, I haven’t seen ’em in a little while). If that’s the case, Album Number Three is really gonna smoke!
Peace,
Greg
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