Sunlight was streaming into the 23rd floor apartment that Matt had subletted for his summer of recording in Toronto. I got up and couldn't believe the view. His place opened east across Spadina towards the University of Toronto. I could see Varsity Centre nee Varsity Stadium, which I first saw on TV in 1986 when Notre Dame Alumnus Rob Ross caught the winning touchdown in UBC's Vanier Cup win and the CN Tower, which featured in a terrorist plot for the 1995 film "Canadian Bacon", starring John Candy.
I awoke before the rest of the gang and, after doing a load of laundry (oh the glamorous life of a teacher-turned-folk-star), I headed out for some Internet access. As I walked north up Spadina to Bloor Street I was humming "Street Car" by Hayden and at once I was reminded of one of my deepest darkest secrets...I actually like Toronto.
Now, I know all my friends in Vancouver, Quebec, Newfoundland and even the United States will be disappointed in me for admitting this in a public forum but it is true. I would miss the mountains if I lived there (Toronto's deepest dark secret is that it's flatter than Saskatchewan) but I am a city kid at heart and Toronto is the biggest and (achem) one of the better ones.
How can I possibly say this? Well, the population base supports a wider variety of restaurants, bars and entertainment options that I am tempted to sample than anywhere else but Montreal. All the big music acts play there. It has the pro sports that I like to watch and the Hockey and CFL (technically in Hamilton) Hall of Fames. Toronto has Canada's closest approximation of the big AND old buildings that I like about the big eastern US cities. It's airport is connected to everywhere cheaper than anywhere else in Canada and the transportation system is pretty decent with street cars, GO-Trains and the subway.
Sure Toronto has it's gridlock problems and the people there think that their sports teams are way more important to the rest of the country than they really are. And then, there's Scarberia, I mean, achem, Scarborough...but on the whole it's not a bad place.
Bloor Street is near The U(of T) so it has a lot of what I like about the T-dot. The street cars, people on bikes, people on foot, restaurants, bars, cafes etc. The energy of so many different people doing so many different things is really powerful and I had to sit and work on an outdoor patio so I could be a part of it. On the way back to Matt's for an afternoon rehearsal, I stopped in at Honest Ed's to get some Rubbermaid containers to hold all of out CD's, merchandise and camping gear now that it was being carried in a pickup with no canopy instead of a VW Westphalia.
We rehearsed out on the deck in the shade looking over the view I showed you earlier. After touching up a few issues from the Chicago show, we loaded all the gear we needed for the show down to the truck, changed and headed to Fionn MacCool's down on The Esplande for our show. We had arranged to have a local singer, Caitlin Burgess open for us and we were anxious to meet her.
Fionn MacCools has a great atmosphere and a crowded patio. Inside, Caitlin's crowd was ready to folk and our problems sound checking didn't diminish their enthusiasm. She played a great opening set and we convinced her to stick around for a second set so we could enjoy her songs while we were eating. Great stuff.
After the show, we headed up to Bloor street and into the James Joyce where we managed to secure a set the following night by talking to Jonah the manager. We met some new fans at the Joyce who raised some eyebrows us by asking if we'd be having breakfast with them. They meant at an all night dinner down the street but I must admit it was a good opener because we did end up going to the diner with them.
On the way home from blogging and booking and Bloor the next day, I stopped in at one of my favourite Ontario institutions, The Beer Store, where they send your order from the back on wheeled conveyor belt. It was made famous (to non-Ontarians) by the movie Strange Brew when Bob and Doug MacKenzie tried to get a free case of beer:
I picked up some Mill Street Tankhouse Ale but, sadly, I had to pull it off the shelf as apparently only domestic two-fours from the major breweries come down the belt at the Spadina and Bloor location.
Before the show Elegwen headed out to a local bar to try to meet some industry types and Matt went to help his girlfriend move so it was left to John and I to carry all the gear on foot the four blocks to the James Joyce. Fortunately, Jonah didn't want us to play with the drum kit so our gear was limited. We went on at 11:30 and had a pretty good set. They were so impressed at the bar that they wanted to have us back at the end of August. Unfortunately we were already booked in BC for the dates they wanted. Maybe next year.
All in all it was a pretty decent run in The Big Smoke and we were off to the Ottawa area the next day.
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