Make Your Exit + Everything All The Time + Dinosaur Bones

Steam Whistle Unsigned Indie Music Series #14
Cost: $5.00
Hand Stamp: Against the Grain
February 21, 2010

In support of The Artist’s Health Centre Foundation which provides services for over 20,000 professional artists living in the Toronto area, the fourteenth Steam Whistle Unsigned Event since 2007 brought in the largest audience and in turn, raised the most money to date. Having this event at the Steam Whistle brewery located directly next to the Rogers Centre (but still known as The SkyDome to most) is a prime location, and has a great atmosphere with exposed brick and brewing equipment. The downside (or upside depending on how you look at it) of holding a concert in a brewery is that Steam Whistle tall boys are plentiful and as a result, the crowd was a little more intoxicated than usual. So much so, that from the back of the room it was even difficult to hear the music over the mindless crowd chatter. Make Your Exit were up first, and since they had been compared to Fleet Foxes in terms of their vocal harmonies, they had a lot to live up to. The first two songs were actually quite enjoyable, but as the set went on (and it did for close to an hour) it was clear that they were definitely not comparable to Fleet Foxes as the harmonies quickly fell apart and started to feel like more of an impromptu karaoke session than anything else. This isn’t to knock their music abilities because they certainly are talented musicians, but their harmonies definitely could use some work.

By the time Everything All The Time began their set it was close to 11pm, and the crowd had quickly filled the entire room, which was impressive considering at 9pm there were only a scattered handful of people. Their upbeat pop melodies quickly filled the space, but unfortunately so did the consistent microphone feedback which was so distracting that I had to call it a night. I was, however, impressed with their crafty merchandise which included a hand drawn illustrated t-shirt, as well as CDs stitched with thread sealed with wax, something you won’t see in mass produced packaging. Personally, I was disappointed to miss out on Dinosaur Bones, but it was nice to see so many people coming out to support such a worthy cause.