Anybody else seen Throwback?

[bradm]

I had an e-mail a while back from the manager of the band Throwback. He had found me by checking on archive.org to see who had taped shows in Toronto (where I've taped a couple of times, notably GTB and JSB at The Horseshoe back in October, 2004), and wanted to know if I could tape them at their next show in Toronto. I said no, because I live in Ottawa (and only get to Toronto sporadically), but that I'd be up for taping them the next time they were in Ottawa.

That next time turned out to be this past Saturday, at Cafe Dekcuf, which I was glad of because I like that room, and hadn't been there since April, which was after they had lost their liquor license; I was particularly interested to see what the status of them serving alcohol was.

Well, they don't have their license back yet. A bit before the show started, I ducked down to Mavericks for a beer, and bumped into Kevin, who, when asked about Dekcuf and its (lack of) license, said they'd have it in "a couple of weeks, maximum".

The bigger bummer is that, not only weren't serving alcohol, they weren't serving anything. It seems they can't get a bartender who wants to work the bar when booze isn't flowing. (I guess because of the lack of business/tips, maybe?)

Dekcuf looks kind of stripped-down now. The crowd was good (bigger than, say, the Stephen Franke show there back in April), but was composed of mostly friends and family of the band (some of whom were serious fans: four of them had t-shirts, each with a picture of a different band member); one of the members commented that the show was like a combination of a family Christmas dinner and a high-school reunion. Given that I'm usually there for events where I know almost everybody in the bar, it was kind of weird to be on my own, knowing nobody.

Truth be told, I wasn't expecting much of the music. I had listened to the songs on their website, and they struck me as reasonably radio-friend mainstream stuff.

And the first couple of songs were like that. As the show progressed, though, they opened up a bit, and let things flow more. Their electric guitar player is really good (and had a tone to die for), each member sings (the electric guitar player, the drummer, and the acoustic guitar player each took at least one turn on lead vocals; the [female] bass player also did background vocals), the drummer (who also did a stint with a djembe out front) did a human beat-box thing a couple of times, and the band gave off such a coolly positive vibe that I had a smile on my face throughout the night. (With the feel of the songs, and the songs themselves, I think they'd be a good match for either Vanderpark or BNB.)

They covered or teased "On Broadway", "Take Me Out" (Franz Ferdinand) and "The Chain" (Fleetwood Mac), and their originals were really good, and seemed to be written to be more complex than they had to be (with the added complexity [including longer lines and rhythmic structures] making the songs more interesting). It wasn't that kind of scary jamming that Phish, BNB, nero, or GTB have been known to reach, but it was definitely above and beyond straight-up radiophilic pop.

Apparently they're also part of archive.org, so I'm hoping to get the show uploaded soon (DSL service should be working tonight, he said, fingers & toes crossed). I'm interested in others' opinions of them, because I thought they were pretty good.

Aloha,

Brad

Edited August 8, 2005 by Guest
Dang typos. "Either" ends in an "r".

[bradm]

I forgot to mention: the encore was done unplugged, with just acoustic guitars, bongos, and vocals, but with mics and the PA turned off. It added a nice intimate feel to the end of the night.

Aloha,

Brad

Edited August 8, 2005 by Guest

[Boochawan]

I think they'd be a good match for eithe Vanderpark or BNB.)

Funny you should say. They started up at about the same time as us when we were in Montreal and we played so many of our first shows together. I'm friends with Mike (the lead guitar player whose tone you were speaking of) and I know Micah, the percussionist, as well. They're really nice guys - glad you enjoyed their Dekcuf show, I was wondering how it went.

[Freeker]

I don't know if Dekcuf will be getting their license back anytime soon. I hope they do, i miss it up there.... but I would imagine that becasue of the "legal trouble" they had a couple years ago it makes it very difficult to renew a liquer license even though it had little to do with the bar.

[Booche]

Also, they have been saying "A couple of more weeks" since it happened.

[bouche]

"a couple of weeks, maximum"

That's what they said back in april!

[bradm]

Yeah, well, I was going to add a "grains of salt with which you can take this are available at the bar" to the liquor license comment, but, well, there wasn't anything available at the bar...

Aloha,

Brad

[shainhouse]

We just featured them on the 'on the verge' section in Relix. Akin to Guster, Pat McGee and the like... very popular on college campuses in the Northeast as well.