Photographs by Randall Vasquez.
Southern fried roots rockers Alabama Shakes ushered in Toronto’s fall concert season with a sweltering performance at Air Canada Centre that could have easily headlined any of the city’s warm weather festivals this year. Oh, wait, the Brittany Howard-fronted nine-piece family-style meal (that included several touring backup singers) did just that back in June, topping the bill at the Fort York-friendly Field Trip.
In the days leading up to the group’s T.O. homecoming of sorts, retweeters of all things local @spexontoronto referred to them as a “blues and grunge band”. Not sure how they arrived at that particular tag; maybe for openers July Talk, but more on those kooky kids later. The “grunge” comment admittedly stuck in my craw, and made me reminisce as I’m wont to do all the way back to November of 1993, when some actual grungers arguably at a similar point in their respective career trajectories played a show at the home of Toronto’s second-favo(u)rite pro team. The Blue Jays, if you may recall, had just won another World Series to knock the Maple Leafs from the front of the sports pages, not that I’m hoping for history to repeat itself or anything…
Anyway, Nirvana at Maple Leaf Gardens was memorable for 21-year old ROCKthusiast for a whole host of reasons. I’ll never forget thinking to myself while walking out how they unequivocally proved they had graduated from dingy, shoebox-sized venues onto such a mainstream, arena rock stage. Oh, and Nirvana did so in Toronto without playing their biggest hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, a fact that is frequently forgotten while waxing poetically over their mythologized crash and burn in the months that followed.
Ms. Howard and company aren’t likely to have the same fate fall upon them – at least let’s sure hope not. She definitely didn’t feel the need to hold back on any of her (ahem!) radio-friendly unit shifters like “Always Alright” (from the Silver Linings Playbook soundtrack), “Hold On” and “Don’t Wanna Fight” (off of Boys & Girls and latest Alabama Shakes album Sound & Color, respectively). The respectfully sizeable crowd had been won over wayyy before that, however, on account of Howard’s booming voice that penetrated the very souls of everyone in attendance and made us sensually sway in a breezy, 2-hour long call and response manner. Even though Howard wore a Southern Belle-ish flowery white-and-reddish dress, this is one lady who isn’t afraid to get nasty at times in the most awesome way possible. Here I am world, deal with it is what she seemed to be silently saying, preferring to let her almost gospely-fused music do almost all the talking. Despite the ACC’s notoriously cavernous setting, Alabama Shakes somehow made the old barn incredibly inviting and intimate. They haven’t changed much from the gentlemen and woman that charmed the pants off Lee’s Palace a few years back.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see “Tarrana” experience a mini baby boom in sayyy around June of 2016 because of all the unadulterated sexuality that oozed all freaking evening, beginning in earnest with those “grungier” curtain-raisers. With #Polaris2015 still fresh on the minds of many Canadian music fans, I’d be remiss if I didn’t reemphasize how the state of rock music in our country is in solid hands with July Talk. Talk about a band moving up a level; Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay OWNED the ACC with their sleazy garage blues. I know the infamous Bon Jovi banner isn’t hanging from the rafters any longer, but July Talk put on the kind of show that declared this is THEIR house from now on. They were THAT good, and I for one can’t wait for Album Number Two, especially after being treated to a pair of new songs they’ve been busily honing in-studio.
As I made the familiar commute homeward through Union Station, all I could think about was how Alabama Shakes, like Nirvana before them had ARRIVED with minimal fireworks…they simply let their presence and kick-ass jams make the only statement they needed. Hicks. No. Longer! If I HAD to find a flaw, it’s that I was secretly hoping to hear a cut or two from Howard’s raucous, vintage-tinged surprise “solo” effort Thunderbitch, which I cannot ROCKmend enough 😉
And the Blue Jays shut out the Yankees too to make it an all-around gr-r-reat night in Toronto!
