Possum with The Kents and New Swears at the Horseshoe Tavern

This January Exclaim is hosting series of shows promoting the class of 2017, artists who are expected to make a big leap forward and become the next big thing in the Toronto music scene. The Horseshoe is a perfect venue as it’s intimacy can hide a small crowd well up front but when it gets busy all hell breaks loose for some amazing musical memories. With bands that already have established followings playing, there was no need to worry about a shortage of people in the crowd. Lining up near the start the show showed the excitement, as people were eager to get in.

Watching the energetic performances of Lindsey’s own The Kents and New Swears, who are newly signed to Dine Alone Records, pumped the crowd up to unimaginable highs with mosh pits going strong and plenty of crowd surfers with little regard for the small dance floor space. When Possum, the last band of the night took the stage the crowd was rowdy and ready for a good time. While their music could lazily be described as psychedelic they offer so much more, especially comparing their live shows to their recorded music. Their music seems birthed by Tame Impala and METZ having a baby that listened only to Waves as they have a light fun beachy sound while still offering plenty of reverb, jams and screams.

The band started out with a jam called Tiger and worked their way up to full furor very quickly. It was only a few songs in when a mosh pit started, apparently the first ever at a Possum show. The band played several songs off of their latest EP Quick Damage including the title track and the album standout Invisible Man with its pulsing drum beat by Bradley Thibodeau, that made a full moon rise over the crowd. Brandon Bak provided towering guitar solos with Tobin Hawkwood and Bak and bassist James Gagné shared vocal duties. The raw rock star energy exuded from the four of them making it impossible to turn your head away. The show was going to end and the band was leaving the stage with the lights dimmed, but the crowd demanded at least one more song so they quickly picked up their gear and rocked out Quick Fingers, another new number for the eager crowd.