Wed, Oct 7

HOPE SANDOVAL AND THE WARM INVENTIONS at Mod Club Rating: NNNN

Hope Sandoval’s stage presence – shoegazing and ghostly – matches her voice almost perfectly. Her seductive drawl has grown even more pained and beautiful since her days with Mazzy Star, and though she ignored requests for tracks from that era, she played newer songs like Around My Smile with chill-inducing effectiveness.

Sandoval’s interaction with the crowd was non-existent – think crackling amps and dead silence between songs – but that somehow added to the cool, weird vibe. Her harmonica solos were at times discordant, perhaps on purpose, but that worked, too. In lieu of spotlights, the six-piece band had eerie, spiralling images projected on a screen behind them. An extra-psychedelic rendition of For The Rest Of Your Life closed out the phantasmagorical set, and the band vanished before the house lights came up.

ANDREW RENNIE

Fri, Oct 9

RUSKO with TODDLA T at the Mod Club Rating: NNNN

It was pure mayhem and frenzy outside Arcade Fridays, the Mod Club’s hot new weekly picking up the slack and then some from CiRCA’s now-defunct Randomlands. Hundreds of clubbers milled outside while others tried shoving handfuls of cash at the security guards. The list-holder loudly proclaimed “There’s no way any of you are on the list” as we approached him.

Inside, Toddla T put the finishing touches on his warm-up set, spinning jittery dubstep over dancehall vocals while jumping around the venues’s long, ornately esigned DJ table. Soon the spiky-haired Rusko was by his side, twisting the mixer’s knobs like he was touching fiery embers.

Rusko (aka Christopher Mercer) officially kicked off his set with a twisted version of a Dire Straits classic, showing why he’s the newest darling of the Mad Decent crew, and the crowd heaved forward. Dubstep isn’t the easiest genre to dance to – Rusko frequently switches tempo and rhythm in between laser gun sounds and bombs of crunching bass – but the sweaty dance floor found a way.

JASON KELLER

Sun, Oct 11

MAJOR LAZER, DANNY TENAGLIA, CROOKERS and more at the Guvernment Rating: NNNN

As is becoming the pattern for large-scale parties like the Guvernment’s 13th birthday, the evening felt more like two separate events: the hipster dance scene took over Kool Haus with electro-house bigwigs Crookers and the highly anticipated Toronto debut of Diplo and Switch’s dancehall reggae project Major Lazer, while the rest of the club got down to the epic big-room house sound of New York legend Danny Tenaglia. 

Major Lazer were highly entertaining, making up for Switch’s absence with dancers and a hyperactive MC who spent most of the set climbing the speakers and jumping off step ladders. Crookers started off strong but surprisingly lost much of their crowd soon after last call. Over in the main complex, however, Tenaglia was just getting started. He led the room through one of his trademark marathon sets of spacey, pounding beats interspersed with Beatles and Michael Jackson references.

BENJAMIN BOLES

Mon, Oct 12

ASOBI SEKSU, LONEY DEAR at the Horseshoe Rating: NNN

On paper, the co-headlining tour of Brooklyn shoegazer dream pop band Asobi Seksu and Swedish orchestral indie folk band Loney Dear seemed an odd match. However, while they may be pulling from different influences, they both share a penchant for wistful, melancholy melodies and can shift gears between a whisper and a wall of sound effortlessly and effectively.

Asobi Seksu come across as a well-oiled machine but need to vary their formula. At times they sounded a bit too much like a safe version of My Bloody Valentine. 

Loney Dear, on the other hand, bounced between sparse folky sad songs and synth-powered pop. But the strongest moment by far came when main man Emil Svanängen stepped away from the mic and unplugged his guitar to perform completely unamplified to the whisper-quiet room. His songs are strong enough to do without all the extra embellishments that were carefully arranged for the rest of the set.

BB