I made my way to the Horseshoe on Saturday night to check out three Canadian artists. On the bill was Laura Barrett, Bruce Peninsula, and The Acorn. The show started off with Laura Barrett taking the stage just after 10pm and playing for about 30 minutes. She plays the kalimba which was interesting to see and hear because ive never seen it played before. Next up were Toronto’s Bruce Peninsula. All 11 of them filled up the stage at the Horseshoe pretty good for a set that lasted 40 minutes. To cap off a great night of music, The Acorn hit the stage just after midnight and played for just over 65 minutes.

Im still working on the setlists. Ill try and post the recordings soon.

Laura Barrett Setlist:
01 Stop Giving Your Children Standardized Tests (Part 1)
02 Robot Ponies
03 Teachers Poot
04 Time City
05 The Wood Between Worlds
06 Senior & The Blob
07 Army Dreamers (Kate Bush)
08 Deception Island Optimists Club

Bruce Peninsula Setlist:
01 Warden Warden Warden > Mynah Birds
02 Lift Em Up > Jack Can I Ride?
03 Steamroller
04 Shanty Song
05 2nd 4th World War > Satisfied
06 Shutters
07 Dress Song > Crabapples

The Acorn Setlist:
01 The Flood Pt. 1 *
02 Brokered Heart
03 Dents (Glory Pt. 1)
04 ?
05 ?
06 Antenna
07 Feral Chile
08 ?
09 Blankets
10 Crooked Legs #
11 Low Gravity
12 ? $
13 Spring Thaw

* with Bruce Peninsula and Laura Barrett
# with Jamie Bunton of Ohbijou
$ with Bruce Peninsula

Links:
Laura Barrett
http://www.myspace.com/laurabarrett

Bruce Peninsula
http://www.bruce-peninsula.com
http://www.myspace.com/brucepeninsula

The Acorn
http://www.theacorn.ca
http://www.myspace.com/theacorn

Wintersleep and tour mates The Wooden Stars were in Toronto last Friday night for a show at the Mod Club. Wintersleep are touring in support of their excellent new album “Welcome to the Night Sky“. The show was an early one with the doors opening at 8pm and The Wooden Stars promptly taking the stage at 8:20pm. I was completely unfamiliar with them but from what i saw and heard, they are a pretty good band. Go check them out when you can. A few minutes later Wintersleep took the stage to an almost full Mod Club. The show was sold out, but there was a rush of people into the venue around 9:45pm or so. They must not have realised it was an early show. Anyways, the show was great and im looking forward to seeing them again. They played for 70 minutes with the show ending just after 10pm. Great for us early morning risers.

Setlist:
01 Drunk On Aluminium
02 Archaeologists
03 Caliber
04 Jaws Of Life
05 Dead Letter & The Infinite Yes
06 Weighty Ghost
07 Murderer
08 Search Party
09 Orca
10 Astronaut
11 Miasmal Smoke & The Yellow Bellied Freaks
12 Oblivion

Encore:
13 Danse Macabre

Trevor Connell has some really good pictures of both bands here: http://www.trevorconnellphotography.blogspot.com.

The Wooden Stars:
http://www.thewoodenstars.com
http://www.myspace.com/thewoodenstars

Wintersleep:
http://www.wintersleep.com
http://www.myspace.com/wintersleep