Thu, Feb 12

THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART with DEPRECIATION GUILD at Lee’s Palace Rating: NNN

Kip Berman couldn’t believe his eyes. Gazing out at a packed Lee’s Palace, the guitarist/singer for indie pop unit the Pains of Being Pure at Heart said, “I’m not lying when I say this is the biggest show we’ve ever played.” Add in the fact that it was the band’s first Toronto show and you can understand his bewilderment. Welcome to the wonderful, bizarre world of Internet hype.

The Brooklyn four-piece, with Berman and bassist Alex Naidus flanking drummer Kurt Feldman and keyboard player Peggy Wang, have a retro sound and feel that comes across like a hybrid of MBV shoegaze, Yo La Tengoesque American indie and pre-grunge Vaselines. Nothing groundbreaking, but as the Animal Collectives and Deerhunters of the world take listeners to the outer limits of cerebral indie rock, this band helps fill a simple pop pleasure void.

Pains, however, need to walk before they run. Even as Berman gutsily ripped through catchy tracks like Everything With You and Come Saturday, the band looked nervous and sounded muddled, suggesting they’re unready to headline large rooms. It’ll be interesting to see where they are a year from now. Hopefully, they won’t let the hype current drag them under.  

JASON KELLER

Fri, Feb 13

TUXEDOMASK at Bread and Circus Rating: NNNN

Bread and Circus is slowly moving up in the world. Founded on Baldwin in the spot that used to be the Fish Shak restaurant, B&C recently moved on to Augusta, into the old Adrift Skate Shop space. While a corridor inconveniently separates the bar in the front from the venue in the back, the space does have a decent stage and an arty, quasi-industrial charm.

When Tuxedomask climbed onstage, lit by a pulsating strobe, only a smattering of in-the-knows were on the dance floor. Fresh from the after-party circuit, this hotly tipped duo played bankable retro bangers with just enough grit to sound like CFCF playing on Crystal Castles’ set-up – soft 80s synths set to a sinister-sounding electro-disco beat. 

While they fool around way more live than they do on their tight MySpace tracks, these guys have the magic touch when it comes to live builds and hard-hitting Blue Monday drum fills. There’s a hot new wave of Toronto electro forming, and these guys are part of it.

JORDAN BIMM

Sun, Feb 15

FOXFIRE, I AM ROBOT AND PROUD, THANK YOU and MI AMI at Sneaky Dee’s Rating: NNN

A shoulder-to-shoulder crowd jammed into Sneaky Dee’s for the final night of Wavelength’s Ninth Anniversary weekend, headlined by sprawling Toronto disco-sleaze outfit Foxfire, whose sound and look seem wildly captivating until you realize that Neil Rankin, who isn’t a strong live singer, sings 80 per cent more than Hannah Krapivinsky, whose voice is bewitching and pitch-perfect. Add in wah-wah pedal and a relentless disco beat and the band’s glittery promise begins to wane, save for guitarist Alex Ralph’s flamboyant exuberance.

The night’s best performance came from I Am Robot and Proud, whose unique brand of flute-heavy vocal-free elevator music was fantastically uplifting, especially after the tuneless caterwauling of Baltimore’s Thank You and San Francisco’s Mi Ami. Even with the musical misses, energy stayed high thanks to Doc Pickles’s between-set pep talks to “start your band already!”

CARLA GILLIS

LIL LOUIS at Mod Club Rating: NNNN

Lil Louis’s 1989 hit French Kiss was one of the first Chicago house records to cross over in a big way outside the Windy City, and one of the few ever to make it onto the American pop charts. This and his subsequent run of club hits makes him one of the key architects of underground dance music, and he still has no problem filling a party with sweaty bodies.

Looking down from the balcony at the Mod Club as the floor exploded with whistling and handclapping when the first strains of The Conversation were mixed in, I was struck by how effective and powerful the minimalist sax-and-drums track still is 20 years later. 

True, some snobbier house heads might complain that the legend didn’t dig deep enough in his crate for surprises, but they’re not working it out on the dance floor long after last call. And since we’re talking about dance music, that’s what really matters at the end of the night.

BENJAMIN BOLES