Those who know me know that I love Tom Waits. So it was either by divine providence (or mere chance) that, last year, I stumbled upon the Bandcamp page of a group whose sound was likened to “Tom Waits and Amy Millan shouting whiskey-soaked lullabies while backed by Crazy Horse.”
MASHAL KHAN/THE VARSITY
Wholly enchanted by their harsh-throated Waits-incarnate vocalist, the band’s roots in Toronto were just, metaphorically speaking, the sonic icing on an already delicious musical cake.
Formed in 2012, July Talk has made good use of their brief time together, touring with the likes of Billy Talent, the Arkells, and Sam Roberts, and releasing their self-titled debut LP in October of last year. Consisting of singer/guitarist Peter Dreimanis, singer Leah Fay, guitarist Ian Docherty, bassist Josh Warburton, and drummer Danny Miles, July Talk tore up Hart House’s Great Hall this past Thursday with a blistering hour-long set, infusing UTSU’s Winter Week of Welcome with a welcome dose of hard-hitting alt-rock.
The band pounded through originals from their LP with all the gusto of seasoned professionals. Their stage presence was electrically frantic, and the hypnotic chemistry between Dreimanis and Fay was palpable. The evening’s most memorable moments were from Fay — starting the set by singing from a tower in Great Hall, she soon called out students watching the concert through their phones because “the photographers would have better pictures,” and told the audience of how her parents met in Robarts Library. Fay also sang from the audience, pulling up a student to dance onstage, and preceded her encore performance with a wet t-shirt contest involving two all-too-willing male participants.
After the set, the band waited by the merchandise table, signing vinyl LPs and printed tees. Before being carried away by the flow of autograph-hungry students, I was able to get a brief word or two from Dreimanis, who said, politely and pithily, that, “[Great Hall] is a beautiful room, and we had a blast playing at U of T.”
The honour, of course, was all U of T, who received the crackling electrical warmth of July in a frozen January.
