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!

It’s the start of a new year, which means it’s time for another Out of this Spark anniversary party. I must give credit to OOTS mastermind Stuart Duncan for switching things up this year, moving everything from the cavernous confines of The Garrison (home to last year’s celebrations, written up here) to the much cozier interior of The Tranzac’s Southern Cross Lounge.

The night’s billing was also noticeably different from past anniversaries — instead of having the entire OOTS roster perform, this year’s anniversary brought a few satellite bands in to the fold. In fact, the only band to perform currently on OOTS was Evening Hymns; the rest of the night was devoted to alumni (Jenny Omnichord) and contributors to the Friends in Bellwoods 2 compilation (Kite Hill, The Phonemes, Richard Laviolette, The Pale Mornings aka. Sylvie Smith).

Under most circumstances, a seven band bill would have me running for the hills, but Stuart did a great job of picking acts that I really wanted to see. Several bands were even testing out new material — always a bonus at shows. I spoke with Ryan Carley of Kite Hill and he said the band’s debut is done being recorded, so hopefully we’ll get to hear it very soon since I really enjoyed their set. Evening Hymns’ set was almost all new songs, and they made sure to tell the crowd that they’ll be appearing on a new album soon, tentatively titled Spectral Dusk.

The Pale Mornings and Richard Laviolette & The Oil Spills filled the country quota of the night — the former through covers of timeless tunes (some Patsy Cline, some Waylon Jennings) and the latter with some of his own modern classics. If you haven’t picked up Richard’s latest album “All Your Raw Materials,” it just got re-issued on You’ve Changed Records. Everyone’s gotta have it!

The show was sold out completely and it surely could have been held in a bigger room but besides some sad faces on those who couldn’t get in, the night was a success from my point of view. The Tranzac’s front room is one of my favourite places in Toronto to see a show and even though it was at capacity, the crowd was quiet and respectful the whole night.

Of course it wouldn’t be an OOTS-versary without a set from the “Family Band.” This time around they went the all-covers route, with Evening Hymns’ Jonas Bonnetta taking lead on Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down,” Sylvie Smith doing George Harrison’s “I’ve Got My Mind Set on You,” Daniela Gesundheit from OOTS latest signing Snowblink covering Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away,” and Kat Burns of Forest City Lovers and John O’Regan of The D’Urbervilles trading verses on Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen” into Destiny’s Child’s “Bootylicious.”

I want to thank Joe Strutt and his amazing website Mechanical Forest Sound for letting me use his captured audio from the night alongside my own. If you haven’t been to his site yet, please take the time to check it out. He goes to more concerts than anyone else in Toronto and he reviews and posts live recordings from all of them. As for me, I posted a whole bunch more videos from the show on YouTube and photos on Flickr.

To celebrate and officially welcome their new 7″ single, last week Tasseomancy played a rare Toronto headlining show at The Tranzac. I first encountered the twins Sari and Romy Lightman when I moved to Toronto in 2008. They were actually the first group I interviewed (when they were known as Ghost Bees) for the National Post, and their album Tasseomancy was one of my favourites from that year. In the two years since then their music has evolved to have a much darker and atmospheric sound, perfectly suited for their macabre lyrics and style. The addition of keys and drums and switch to electric guitar should help turn a few more heads, especially those who had them painted as just another folk band with nice harmonies.

Opening up the night was Princess Century, who played in complete darkness (so no video of that performance), and Castlemusic, one of my favourite local singer-songwriters. I first caught on to the music of Jennifer Castle when I saw her open for the Constantines a few times in 2008. At those shows chatty crowds drowned out her extremely quiet songs, so it wasn’t until I saw her play a church at SappyFest that year that I finally heard her for real. Ever since then I’ve tried to catch her whenever I can, but it had been a while so I was grateful for the opportunity to see her again. Armed with a batch of new songs and an attentive crowd, she made another strong case having one of the city’s best voices.

I made my way over to the Tranzac last Friday to catch my friend Stuart’s monthly “Out of this Spark presents” concert. Stu’s been doing these shows for a while now and I’ve yet to miss one. They’re always nice, laid-back affairs, where you’re sure to see unique sets from both fresh talent and more established acts. The lineup for the night was The Youngest, whose short, wistful set left me truly impressed, VIVIV, the latest project from Ken Reaume, and finally, Casey Mecija of Ohbijou. I’ll be honest, it was pretty late by the time Casey went on and I’d had a few drinks, so I collapsed into a seat right up front and tried filming to the best of my inebriated abilities. So please, watch this video of Casey playing a song that I’d never heard before – her sister Jenny is singing backups and really nails it. Love ‘em.

Jonas brought out these friends for his album release show back in December, and I was fortunate enough to be in the audience. Here they are performing his song “Broken Rifle” – see if you can count how many people are on stage for this.

Bry Webb, also of the Constantines, opened the show. Now, I’ve seen him play many times now going back several years, and each time has been special. The first time was almost five years ago, also at the Tranzac. I believe that was one of Bry’s first solo shows, and he only played a handful of songs (it was an afternoon gig in celebration of Three Gut Record’s fifth anniversary). The next time I saw him play was two and a half years later, once again at the Tranzac. For that show he had an entire band backing him up, with members of several prominent bands filling out the ranks. Now jump ahead to this winter, a few more years have passed and I find myself back at the Tranzac watching Bry Webb (this time wrapped in blue Christmas lights).

It’s actually unprecedented for me to have seen a performer so many times (I failed to mention above that I’ve seen Bry play at least two other times) and know the songs so well but not own their record. I can’t be blamed in this case since he’s yet to release an album!  I’ve heard for several years that he’s been chipping away at one, so hopefully we’ll have something by the end of this year. If you’re really jonesing for some solo recordings, check out 2007’s Friends in Bellwoods compilation for a cover of The Velvet Undergrounds’ “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’” he did with Ohbijou’s Casey Mecija, or try tracking down the soundtrack to This Beautiful City, which features two originals by Bry Webb called “Big Smoke” (which nominated for a Genie last year for Best Original Song) and “Positive People.” Whew.

I didn’t get off work until midnight last night, meaning I missed Taylor’s big gig, but I still made it to the Tranzac afterwards for the latest OOTS presentation. Luckily that seemed to be where most people ended up after the Timber Timbre show so I was still able to see some friends, which is key. I missed the first few acts (Chris Yang and Gavin Gardiner) but got there just in time to see Guelph’s Richard Laviolette, whose quiet masterpiece A Little Less Like a Rock, a Little More Like a Home was a favourite of mine a few years back, and who I last saw at SappyFest about a year ago. However, in stark contrast to that show, yesterday Richard was backed up by his new-ish band (well, it was the first time I’ve seen them) the Hollow Hooves, who brought some welcome muscle to his fragile sounding songs. It was a very different performance than I’m used to him putting on, but I liked it all the same.

I ducked out after a few tunes to catch up with some friends outside, but hopefully it’s not another year before I see Richard again.