The Standstills were the support act for Platinum Blonde at the Danforth Music Hall on Boxing Day and I don’t think I could have chosen a better band to do this. You probably know this band for their song Orleans which is played on countless radio stations across the GTA and I am pretty sure beyond. They had Paul Reddick join them on stage to play the harp and he fit the band perfectly. I do have to say that I love seeing a female play the drums, there isn’t many out there so when I see a good one I take notice.
The Standstills just found out that on iTunes for 2015 they were named one of the best new rock albums and with so many bands out there this is quite the feat to accomplish. The Standstill released a new single on Tuesday “Rise of the Fall”, I have yet to check it out, but with their success on “Orleans” I am sure this release will follow suit.
Platinum Blonde, a band I have been following for more decades than I care to mention graced the stage at the Danforth Music Hall on Boxing Day to a few hundred of their closest fans. I was actually surprised at how many people were in attendance due to the fact that it was Boxing Day and most people are curled up at home watching tv. But the die hard fans were there and ready for a great night, which they got.
Platinum Blonde is currently working on a new album for 2016 and we were treated with a few new songs from the new album as a post Christmas treat. This was there last show for the 2015 season but I can pretty much guarantee they will be touring hard next year to support their new album.
They started off their set with “Take It From Me ” and half way thru the night Mark sat on a stool in the middle of the stage and made the night a little more intimate and played an acoustic guitar. That didn’t last for too long, before we knew it we were reminiscing to their older hits like “Dancing in the Dark” and “Doesn’t Really Matter”. I do have to make special mention of Dan Todd who I always enjoy watching. Dan is so very animated when he plays, balancing sticks on the palms of his hands or standing up and making faces when he plays. Even at the end of the night he kicked three drum sticks into the audience for them to catch which I am sure isn’t easy to do.
When Platinum Blonde started their song “Hungry Eyes” Mark unfortunately forgot the words and he made light of a bad situation and announced it to the whole crowd. This I found particularly funny, he is human and people aren’t perfect. I loved the fact that he made a point to announce it, I have seen bands throw hissy fits over this and storm off the stage so for Mark to point it out and announce to everyone he just plan forgot is great. Mark told everyone that they do not use auto tune or a teleprompter and you will get a different show every night. Their fans laughed and cheered over this comment.
Once again Platinum Blonde did not fail to disappoint their fans at the Danforth Music Hall, no one left the show “Crying”.
Once again thanks to the crew, because without them there is no show!
