The Breezes EP Launch – Casa Del Popolo – Wednesday, January 20th

First up was sitar player Ellis Steinberg with an acoustic set. Now I don’t know how long this guy has been playing the sitar, but it looked as if he had been playing all his life and by the looks of him, he couldn’t be too far past his 20th birthday, making this guy one talented kid. If you have never seen or heard a sitar, it is an instrument akin to the guitar, but has a very unique sound and is a piece of art in it’s own right. Steinberg had everyone in the room mesmerized by his skillful plucking and Breezes member James Benjamin joined him on stage for half the set playing a djembe. It’s not often that an opener is asked for an encore, but on this night amid chants of “encore!” Steinberg didn’t have a choice.

Between sets the house music was unbearably loud and annoying. I’m not sure who was in charge of that but judging by the faces around me I wasn’t the only one annoyed by it. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for Frenchwestindies to take the stage. When this trio first started playing the first thing that came to mind was Radiohead, but as the set continued that comparison slowly faded and others emerged (Mew, Interpol etc.) These guys are French but sing in English and between songs their stage banter is in English and included guitarist Francis Ford talking about how Casa Del Popolo was such a ‘magnifique’ venue. But besides the banter these guys have some really awesome tunes. They play loud and they have fun while doing it and I promise you will be hearing a lot more from these guys in the near future. Set highlights were “Walkaway” and “Janne Funda”.

After frenchwestindies left the stage the obnoxious house music came back on and I also began to notice that all these kids with interesting haircuts came in. I soon realized that this was a group of Jane Vain fans. The band played their first song to the delight of many, but a broken string on guitarist and singer Nathan Curry’s guitar sort of took the wind out of the sails of the performance. But after about a 10 minute delay, Curry finally gave up on his guitar and borrowed one of the Breezes guitars. The band launched into the bouncy “NYCTHEEND” and all was well in the world again. They played a pretty short set but gave their fans a good show, and gave everyone else in attendance a nice introduction to their music (which just happens to rock pretty hard).

Finally, the band of the night was ready to perform. What was nice to see was that there was a pretty big crowd that showed up to support these guys/dance their asses off. The band bounced on stage with an insane amount of energy and unfortunately had to deal with a few sound issues throughout the first part of their set, but most people didn’t seem to notice. They really brought the performance together in the second half of their set however. The bass driven “Go Without” got people moving and the Sesame Street count along “Count To 11″ finished things up nicely with singer Matt Oppenheimer hopping around the stage like a mad man. But they weren’t going anywhere without an encore, in which the band slowed things down a little with the funky “Grrl”. These guys looked like they were having the time of their lives up there, and the evening marked a promising beginning to their career as a band. If you missed this one, The Breezes will be opening for Toronto, Ontario’s Little Girls on February 11th, so be sure to check that out. – Greg Lozoff

The Breezes

Jane Vain

Frenchwestindies

Ellis Steinberg

Photography by Leanne Craigmyle

Tags: Casa Del Popolo, Ellis Steinberg, EP launch, frenchwestindies, Jane Vain, January 20, Leanne Craigmyle, sitar, The Breezes