Out to a Concert : Foxy Shazam

A week ago Tuesday came an outing we had been waiting for for quite some time. That was a concert by the band Foxy Shazam, for which I had bought tickets ages earlier, for us and our like-minded-on-the-music-front friends, Issy and Andrea.

Our introduction to this band was totally by chance, almost four years ago when Nick, Issy and I caught their set when they were opening for a band called Hollerado. While the headliners were very good, we just could not stop talking about the opener, Foxy Shazam.

Having formed in Cincinnati USA in 2004, this highly entertaining band left an indelible positive impression, and we've been quoting some hilarious lines of banter by the front-man, Eric Nally, since that show in 2010. So as soon as I noticed they were coming back to Toronto, I went right on over to Rotate This for tickets. Since then, the tickets had been stuck into the frame of a mirror, promising a certain good time on the horizon.

And that good time was had in spades last week at a venue called Lee's Palace.

It was a bit drizzly as we took the streetcar up to the show, but that didn't stop me from getting a shot with the painted mural out front of Lee's. It's a piece by mural artist Al Runt and there's a good write up about it here if you're interested.

Checking Out an Interesting Part of Toronto : Bloor West Village

ass="aligncenter size-full wp-image-24412 blk-brdr" src="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/runnymede-theatre-built-1927-in-June-2014-toronto.jpg" alt="runnymede-theatre-built-1927-in-June-2014-toronto" width="640" height="480">I tend to do most of my picture taking of the city while out on foot, which is why you've seen a lot about the places that are within walking distance : Kensington Market, Queen Street W., King Street W., Trinity Bellwoods Park. But the gorgeous weather encouraged us to get on the subway train a week ago Sunday, and travel a little bit further away, meeting up with our friend Andrea in a completely different part of Toronto, an area known as 'Bloor West Village'. Although I've lived in or nearby the city since the age of four, I have never been to this historically significant area, so I found our walk and the sights very interesting, and I hope you will too.To get there, we took the streetcar up to the subway line that runs along Bloor Street and then transferred to the Westbound train. We got off at the High Park stop and made our way up above ground where we met Andrea. After hellos and hugs, the first order of the afternoon was to get some lunch.We went to a spot called The Yellow Griffin, home of 35 different burger choices. Not only do they have that extreme number of combinations for your burger, they also have a very nice list of side-dish choices to go with them. I went with a Sicilian Burger, that was topped with sun-dried tomatoes, olive tapenade and thinly grated Parmesan cheese, served with a purple cabbage slaw. Nick's burger had mango and avocado on it and his choice of side-dish was sweet potato fries. I can't remember what Andrea's burger was but her side-dish was potato salad. To drink we had some nice cold beer. The food and the service were very good, as was the outdoor setting.

The St. Vincent Concert

As mentioned yesterday when I showed you photos I took of our walk to and from, Nick and I went to see St. Vincent at Toronto's public Dundas Square on Friday night. It was a free concert offered by the city as part of the North By Northeast Festival.

And as you can imagine when a popular new musician performs a free show in the middle of a big city, it was very crowded. We decided to stick to the outer edges of the masses of people, where we could see what was going on on stage, albeit from a distance, but that was supplemented by an excellent large-screen that looked like a huge Samsung cellphone suspended in the sky.

The show was great, as was the people watching ...

Festival in the City : Our Long Walk To and From the St. Vincent Concert

Last weekend saw the annual North By Northeast Festival held in Toronto, that years ago began as a music fest, but now includes Music, Interactive, Comedy and Art (My pal Meghan managed the Interactive component this year). For the past few years, as part of the festival the city has hosted some excellent performers for free shows at a public outdoor space called Dundas Square. This year Nick and I ventured over on Friday night to catch St. Vincent.

While being a very popular area of the city, we don't really have much cause to go to Dundas Square very often, so hadn't been there in a couple of years. It's a pretty long walk over but since it was a lovely evening weather-wise, we decided to put on our comfy shoes and trek on over.

Here are the pictures we took on the way to and from the show, and tomorrow I'll post the shots I took of the actual show and the excellent people watching that surrounded it.

Our walk over took us by an old school where the top photo of Nick was taken.

We had to cross University Avenue, which is so wide that the change of lights causes you to stop on the island halfway across, where this sculpture was ...