A Funkaoshi Production

Everyday is Saturday Night

   1 November 2006, terribly early in the morning

K-OS at the Mod Club

The K-OS concert was filled with several pleasant surprises. Mageneta Lane were one of the opening acts, and I can’t say enough good things about them. The other opening act, a black man with a guitar, who could belt out some wicked Hendrix and Marley, was also awesome. (That fellow should be famous.) Finally, there was K-OS himself, who was quite the showman. It was a very creative concert, totally not what I was expecting.

The Mysterious Opener

A black dude in a suit and fedora saunters out on to the stage. He’s carrying an acoustic guitar. He sits down and starts asking the crowd if they’re ready to have a good time, if they’re going to party, if they’re ready for some rock and roll, etc, etc — regular opener sort of stuff. Only he has I don’t give a fuck aurora about him, and he’s swearing a healthy amount. I had a feeling his show was going to be good. He started off by playing some Bob Marley. Someone screamed “Hendrix!” and he quickly switched to playing Purple Haze. He played the intro to Stairway to Heaven, though I think this was meant to be funny more than anything else. After this little introduction of sorts, he started playing his own stuff, which was great. So I ask you Internet: What was his damn name?

Magneta Lane

My favourite girl band of the moment, Magneta Lane, were up next. This was a very pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect a rock trio to open for K-OS. They played a fairly long set consisting mostly of songs from their new album. I’m not sure if anyone knew who they were or not, but most people seemed to like them all the same. I think Torontonians are polite enough anyway that they’ll sit through an opening act they aren’t impressed with and not raise too big a ruckus. They didn’t play Their Party Days, which was a shame, but they did end the set with Daggers Out, which I like quite a bit. If you haven’t heard anything by Magneta Lane you are really missing out.

K-OS

K-OS’ set was very different from what I was expecting. It was certainly a fair bit different than the set he put on at the Amphitheater. There was a heavy rock influence to everything he played. It’s like he decided to do covers of his own music. I liked it a lot. I recognized much of the band from the last concert. They were all playing just as good as the last time I saw them. K-OS’ band features a really killer DJ that scratched the hell out of several records, and an awesome Indian percussionist who played a very nice tabla solo. It was a pretty long set, and featured music from all of his albums. (Most of the stuff was new, of course.) My feet were killing me by the end of the night. Shima and Ali, who I went to the show with, were equally tired. When his set ended, Ali went off to get our coats — and chat up the girls from Magneta Lane — while Shima and I cheered for more music. (Well I cheered anyway.) The band came out for an encore, and played his latest single Sunday Morning. And with that the night was over.

Music | Toronto