A fine folk showcase provided by the good folks at The Holy Oak was just what I was looking for on a recent Tuesday night. Though I’ve caught The Weather Station many times since the release of her sophomore album All Of It Was Mine (buy it/it’s incredible), this was the first time I’d seen her play completely unaccompanied in quite some time. The intimate show gave her the chance to showcase some brand new material, posted below. Nick Ferrio, on the otherhand, I hadn’t seen play in years, going back to my Oshawa-days. He’d swing by The Velvet Elvis every few months with one group or another — The Burning Hell, Weird Weather, The Bloody Miracles — or solo, but that was ages ago and I was super excited to get a chance to see what he’s up to right now. He’s got a shit-hot backing band now and a whole stack of soon to be classic songs, including “Searching For a Way,” posted right up top.

Nick mentioned onstage that he’s just returned from Welland where he put some songs to tape with lil’ Ian Romano. Looking forward to that. In the meantime, him and his band are attempting to put out an EP each month in 2012 themed around different feelings. January’s EP was fittingly titled Depression.

Marine Dreams made their Toronto debut this past November, shortly after the release of their self-titled debut album. Just so I can say the word debut one more time, here’s a new song they debuted at the show! Totally from the heart.

I caught The Skeletones Four at ThriftStock years and years ago, so I made sure to hop on down to The Piston this past August to see them celebrate the release of their sophomore album Gravestone Rock. For this show they expanded their lineup to ten members — it was nuts! The song “Ether Bunnies” is posted up top, but check my YouTube page for a few more songs.

The mysterious Coole & Downes on the final night of their Holy Oak residency in the spring of the year 2011. Here they are playing a song called “Rockwood 1868.”

I won’t be doing a separate entry for them but I also recently shot some videos of Coole & Downes, Simone from $100’s new bluegrass duo. Everything is up on YouTube. I also interviewed Simone over at Hype Lighter.

Toronto Thaw happened this weekend. It’s a new 3-day festival happening at the start of Spring put on by Teenanger and Telephone Explosion. If you didn’t see one of the awesome posters around town then too bad because you missed out on a lot of fun. Granted, I was only able to go to the Friday show, but I passed by Wrongbar on Thursday at around 1:30am and it was still bumpin’ and Metz were playing Saturday night and they rule, so I can only assume the entire weekend was an unequivocal success. I’m not afraid to make this sort of conjecture, I just call it as I see it.

Friday night, however, when I showed up at Duffy’s Tavern at around 11:30pm the place was full. All the kids seem to be into the noisy-garagey-punky stuff at the moment. I dig some of it too! I actually should have tried to go to some of the other shows, especially Saturday because I’ve heard good things about Rituals. All I ended up seeing was Anagram and Hundos. Don’t get me wrong, they were great, but growing up in Oshawa, I saw Anagram play a lot. It’s good though, it’d been a while and they’ve got a new album and 7″ and Matt has a beard now and the crowd was really into it, so yeah, I’m glad I went. I climbed onto a chair to shoot some of the set, but it was so rammed in there and so steamy, made it pretty hard to get anything. Whatever, I feel like an asshole shooting at concerts anyway, people are there to have a good time and I just feel like I’m getting in the way. Next time you see me at a show you have permission to punch me in the face.

After being away from the city for six weeks, it felt really good to be back at The Tranzac for this special tribute night to the great Michael Hurley. I’ve really only heard his 2009 album Ida Con Snock and the odd tune here or there, but with a lineup that included long-time favourites like Bry Webb, Evening Hymns, and The Weather Station, as well as folks I’ve wanted to see play for a while such as Gabe Levine (singing Tia Marie in the video above) and Lisa Bozikovic, I made sure to mark the night down as a “can’t miss event” on my Google Calendar.

Matt ‘Doc’ Dunn did Armchair Boogie’s “Light Green Fellow.” I don’t know a lot about this man, except that I see him around town a lot. I enjoyed his contributions. That’s what’s so great about these tribute nights. You never know what you’re going to see!

The last few times I’ve seen The Weather Station play it’s been just Tamara Lindeman on her lonesome, and I must say it’s working quite well. Her new material is the definition of “stripped down” so she had no problem working with Michael Hurley’s material, which is also pretty bare bones. Her new album is coming out on my favourite record label (announcement forthcoming). I’m excited to hear it.

Long Journey’s “Polynesia” got the Sandro Perri treatment. I should mention that there are a few more videos from the night over on Morning Noon Night’s YouTube channel, including Sandro’s version of “I Paint a Design.”

Tradition did a really fantastic version of “Be Kind to Me,” also off of Armchair Boogie. I should mention the supporting players on this night, otherwise known as the Canada Goose Band, was made up of Jay Anderson and Mike Smith of Steamboat and Jesse Levine on the piano. Good stuff.

This beautiful rendition of “Eyes Eyes” come courtesy of Lisa Bozikovic. The original version appears on Hi Fi Snock Uptown. I’ve known Lisa for a few years now but I’m ashamed to say this was my first time seeing her play solo. She was wonderful!

Bry Webb dedicated Ida Con Snock’s  “I Stole the Right to Live” to his newborn son. From what I’ve been told, his post-Constantines project The Harbourcoats have a record in the can, though I’d reckon being a new father means it won’t see the light of day for a little while. Each time I see Bry play, this unreleased album climbs higher and higher on my “most anticipated albums” list. Yes, such a list really exists.

Evening Hymns have been covering Michael Hurley’s song “Wildegeeses” for a while now so seeing them on the show’s poster wasn’t much of a surprise. Still, it’s a really nice version of the song so I didn’t mind hearing it one more time. Sorry for the quick fadeout at the end there — that’s literally my camera running out of memory and shutting itself off. Perfect timing!

Ladyhawk played here a few weeks back, at The Shop under Parts & Labour. I don’t even know how I got into this band. My roommate had the Fight For Anarchy 12″ and I gave it a listen, but I’d already seen ‘em at that point a few times, I’m sure. SappyFest two years ago was the best. “Sweat until you puke,” that’s what people were saying about Ladyhawk. They’re a good band, and it’s my fault this video ain’t good. Late night, the room is packed and people just want to rock out, I understand. I heard they’re working on a new record, so I’ll have to catch ‘em when they’re touring it.

Metz and SPORTS opened the show. It’d almost been two whole years since I last saw Metz, and in that time they’ve released a bunch of singles that have gotten everybody talking. I don’t even know if I’ve heard a Metz song, but they were awesome. I was stuck right up front during their set, so I couldn’t have gone anywhere if I’d wanted to. They played 15 minutes, maybe? Perfect set length.

SPORTS are made up of 3/4 of Ladyhawk, with their drummer Ryan Peters stepping out from behind the kit and grabbing a guitar instead. They were heavy but they managed to keep me interested for their whole set. I’m thinking I should have picked up their record.

Last night, when I finally arrived at a crammed Horseshoe Tavern, I had already missed both openers (Steven McKay and Little Scream) and Julie was well into her set, so fighting my way to the front of the stage took some time and serious strategizing, but eventually I got close enough to get a decent shot.

Julie Doiron is one of the only musicians for whom I would trek across town on a cold winter’s night after a long day at work. Seeing her play for the first time back in ’06 changed my life, and in all the times I’ve seen her play since then she’s only gotten better. The addition last year of ex-Constantines member Will Kidman has done wonders for her concerts. He brings a nice calm balance to Julie’s somewhat nervous stage presence, and wether he’s drumming or playing along on guitar he always knows just when to rip a mean solo or just fade softly into the background. It was a super fun show, a nice long set as always, with a few choice covers thrown in, including Neil Young’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” with Julie on drums, which you can watch below.