Cost: $11.00
Hand Stamp: Against the Grain (yet again)
February 21, 2010
On this particular night at The Drake, the crowd was relatively passive as most people remained sitting off to the sides even once Illegal Art label electronic artist Junk Culture (aka Deepak Mantena) began his set. Making light of the lackluster audience, Mantena commented, “Did you all just lose your jobs? Cause I’ve got some depressing music I can play.” He also informed the audience that his drummer would have been with him if not for the surgery he just had to reduce the size of his penis. Mantena’s performance may not have garnered the crowd reaction he may have been looking for, but his cheeky personality certainly made up for that.
Luckily, a larger crowd gathered for NYC duo, Phantogram made up of junior high school friends, Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel. When you consider that their first album, Eyelid Movies had just been released two weeks prior to this show, there was a fairly large and enthusiastic turn out. In fact, one particularly vocal crowd member was even able to predict many of the songs played as he yelled out song titles. Opening with, As Far as I Can See, Barthel swung her short dark hair intensely as she sang and played the keyboard; she couldn’t have looked happier to be performing live. The clear crowd pleaser for the evening was the infectious single, Running from the Cops where Carter took over on lead vocals. The heavy electronic sound lends itself really well to both singers’ vocals, and it was nice to see an equal balance throughout the evening. Junk Culture even joined the crowd to cheer on Phantogram just before their encore, so at least he got the crowd participation he was looking for, even if he had to provide it himself. Since they will be returning to Toronto in the next few weeks to open for Hot Hot Heat, it was nice to see them headlining a small show like this because it won’t be long before they’re headlining bigger venues.
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