My girlfriend and I traveled to Toronto on a whim last weekend. It was a little overwhelming figuring out what to do/what we could fit into 48 hours. The only thing I planned was seeing a Replacement’s tribute night at the city’s most famous club, The Horseshoe Tavern. Perhaps new-city-anxiety threw off my memory, though, because I thought the tribute was on Saturday when in fact it was on Friday. What a bummer.
I looked up the club’s calendar and Saturday was listed as “alt-rock” night, which, you know, sent shivers down my spine. A night of Candlebox covers wasn’t something I wanted to experience.
Since we really didn’t know what else to do, we checked out the place anyway.
We payed the relatively cheap $10 cover and bought a couple $6 Labatt Blue’s. What we stumbled upon wasn’t a nostalgia-driven 90′s show, but a nice Albertan indie-pop outfit. The Fast Romantics was no Candlebox, that was for sure. They were a nice mix between Spoon and Stars.
Listening to them yesterday, they didn’t sound as endearing, more bland and derivative than anything. It sure was disappointing, but I’ll always appreciate them for giving me an enjoyable night, when all I expected was the worst thing imaginable: post-grunge nostalgia.
