Photographs by Neil Van.
The Summer Is Forever tour hit Toronto this past Monday night and I must say, it was a hell of a good time. I found it slightly awkward that Best Coast and Wavves would be touring together considering the past long term relationship between Bethany Cosentino and Nathan Williams, but I went with it.
Cherry Glazzer opened up the Danforth Music Hall for the evening, and they were okay. Personally I wasn’t “wowed”, and I think the reasoning for that would be the fact that they reminded me of Metric, who I also don’t see to be “all that”. They definitely had some catchy songs, and the band had a cool personality. Additionally, I couldn’t decide how to feel about Clementine Creevy mooning the crowd- I’ll let whoever is reading this be the judge of that.
Next up was Wavves, and they expectedly opened with “Sail To The Sun” which is always a crowd pleaser. I enjoyed the extended introduction of the chiming, it definitely built up some excitement. They didn’t really say much throughout the show, but I recall them being somewhat quieter at their last show in Toronto at The Opera House, this past September. Although they don’t say much, they never fail to bring some good vibes with their surfer punk style.
I found their set really fun and fluid, and they had a great variety within their setlist featuring all different generations and styles from Wavves. My favourite performances were “ Green Eyes” and “Demon To Lean On”, which were both crowd pleasers. As per usual, there was a lot of crowd surfing and dancing, which kept the show super lively. Overall, they had a pretty awesome set as I expected.
Closing the show was the second headliner, “Best Coast”. I am personally not a fan of Best Coast – I just can’t get into the style. If anything, I do prefer their older tunes, but I really don’t like the newer songs, nothing really sticks out to me. I tried to put myself in the position of someone who does like Best Coast; with this consideration, she put on a good show. I think she definitely could have had a bit more energy and enthusiasm, but she still did a good job. I admire the fact that she has different stylizations within her voice. For instance, I find that at times she can sound really “pop” like and “girly” but in a song like “Heaven Sent”, I almost get a Courtney Barnett type of sound (which I enjoyed). She closed the show with “When Will I Change”.
Overall, this was a pretty good show. It had a great variety between rock, punk, and pop sounds.
