Tag: Waterloo

Restaurant review: King Street Trio

King Street Trio has recently moved back to King Street. It’s now right in uptown Waterloo at 40 King Street South, basically across the street from Rude Native. Recently, we had dinner there.

The new space is quite a bit smaller than their old location on University—it’s a very narrow restaurant. They’ve dressed it up nicely, though, with hardwood flooring, wood tabletops, black chairs, making for a modern look overall. And even as it filled up, we didn’t find it got too loud—though still perhaps not your ideal location for a romantic dinner.

Our waitress was professional and friendly. She seemed quite disappointed that we weren’t celebrating any special occasion (making me wonder what they would have done if we were). And she made a point of asking if we had any time limit, which we did. That resulted in the food arriving a little faster than expected, and in one case before the wine, and was the one “bump” in the otherwise great service. But we did get out on time, after having a full meal, and that was definitely the main goal.

The menu didn’t include any daily specials, which apparently will be added later, but we didn’t have much trouble selecting from the main menu. The appetizers included a fair number of seafood offerings, but I couldn’t resist the oysters. Here, unlike at sister restaurant King Crab and Oyster Bar, you get only one type of oyster, but they were delicious. They came with three dipping sauces. I wasn’t crazy about the mango one, but both the ginger and the cucumber were great.

The two gentlemen had the Angus beef flatbread with shitake, goat cheese, and roasted tomatoes. That was also very good (though both my gentlemen and I preferred the oysters). The fourth diner took a chance on the Suppli di Riso, which was a fried risotto balls stuffed with mozarella. The outside was quite crisp—a bit of challenge to cut through—and the inside, naturally, kind of starchy. Though not bad, she said she likely wouldn’t order it again.

As mains, I stuck with the seafood and had the jumbo sea scallops with green beans and risotto. The scallops were delicious, perfectly undercooked, and the beans also had a great snap and taste. The risotte was fine, but nothing special. The gentlemen continued with their paired ordering, each having the rack of lamb with mashed potatoes and vegetables. Both were impressed with the meat and spuds. Apparently the vegetables were a little less successful. And, now I can’t remember the fourth order–maybe the veal? [I was subsequently informed it was indeed the veal! And quite delicious.]

The wine list included quite a few offerings by the glass and half litter as well as by bottle, most at quite reasonable prices. Those having red meat mains shared a bottle of Chilean Merlot that was a hit all around. I started with a glass of delicious Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, then an Italian Pinot Grigio (fine but not exciting).

Though my items seemed fairly light and the portions were not huge, I was still too full for dessert. I just had a decaf mochaccino. But, a couple of us were able to fit in the vanilla creme brulee, and seemed pleased with that.

All told, it was a very pleasant evening out. I would certainly go there again.

We paid $48 to watch someone do Pattycake

Last night, May 7, Lowest of the Low played Massey Hall the first time, the capper on their tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of “quite possibly the best Canadian debut album ever”, Shakespeare My Butt. I was not there. But I did see their sold-out show at the Starlight Club in Waterloo, on April 21.

The show itself, I have no complaints about. The opening act were Mick Thomas and Squeezebox Wally, an Australian duo so taken with Shakespeare My Butt  that they would play the entire album at their shows. They even made one of the songs—“Rosy and Grey”—a hit there. So there was much more collaboration between opening act and headliner than you normally get, with Lowest members joining in on Mick’s set, and Mick contributing to the Lowest set.

Lowest of the Low played the entirety of Shakespeare My Butt, in order, then came back to do various songs from their other two albums, including “Black Monday” and “The Last Recidivist”. It was fun being in a room full of people who also knew all the words to all the songs. And it was nice to hear, from singer and main songwriter Ron Hawkins, that both “Subversives” and the afore-mentioned “Black Monday” were as honest and beautiful as they were because each was inspired by women he really loved. (He explained it in a less mushy way, but that’s what it came down to.) Performances of both those songs, I found particularly powerful.

But the room? With the low ceiling and all, the music was painfully loud. I had to do the extremely cool “Kleenex in the ears thing” to survive. And with the full house, it was hot and crowded. Plus, way too many tall dudes. I had to keep moving around, trying to get a spot where I actually see the band, and not just the back of someone’s head. The crowd was very well-behaved—no smoke of any kind, and surprisingly little beer spilled. But still. I’d say I’m too old for this kind of show, but I didn’t really like them when I was younger, either.

So kind of glad I didn’t drag any friends with me to this, as I feel I would have just had to apologize. Instead, I suggest, just check out Lowest of the Low on record. That way you’ll thank me later. Maybe start with these ones:

  • “4 O’Clock Stop”, Shakespeare My Butt, the insanely catchy opening number. Lyrics may not cohere as a whole, but they sure feel right as they hurtle along.
  • “Black Monday”, Hallucigenia, as the singer regrets the effects of his depressive nature on the “sad and beautiful” Kate. “The way I am has never been too good for us.”
  • “Rosy & Grey”, Shakespeare My Butt, the most Canadian love song ever, where even “the smell of snow warms me today”.
  • “Gamble”, Hallucigenia, which sounds like it’s exactly about Buffy and Spike, Season 6, even though it was written before then.
  • “Henry Needs a New Pair of Shoes”, Shakespeare My Butt, a deceptively upbeat little ditty that, on closer listening, reveals the social conscience of the band, along with their sense of humour.

And now for something completely different….

A couple years ago I wrote about attending the Open Ears festival, and the organizers noticed. So the notified me about this year’s festival, “celebrating the art of listening”. It took place at a busy time for us, but we did manage to attend one concert: Toca Loca, on April 30.

Where Lowest gave me some unpleasant flashbacks to concerts of my youth, this was like nothing I’d ever seen or heard before. The opening number was “Temazcal”, a piece for maracas and tape. So recorded sounds were played, then a live percussionist joined in on maracas. That was followed by “AK-47”, a piano solo based on the assault rifle. It was both virtuosic, and pretty noisy.

Then there was “Pattycake”. Two performers sat facing each other clapping out the familiar childhood rhythm, but at increasingly dizzying speeds, and with some variation in the original words. It was riveting, as mistakes would be—if not disastrous—at least potentially quite painful. “Repetition is good. It builds trust. Soon you come to know what’s expected.”

In the next two pieces, all three members played along to pieces composed for them, one a fusion of New Wave, Synth-Punk, and No Wave (I don’t know what that means, either), the other a love song as expressed by an industrial machine.

And finally, the “Halo Ballet”. In this one, five gamers manipulated the Halo participants into a kind of dance pattern, instead of the usual trying to kill each other. They would shoot patterns into the sky, or be stacked on one other and twirl, or leap around in synchronicity. We watched all that projected on video. Meanwhile, of course, the band was supplying the soundtrack.

Afterward, Jean commented on how we had paid $48 to watch people do Pattycake. “Did you dislike the music?” “No, can’t say I disliked it.” “Were you bored?” “Absolutely wasn’t bored.”

Me either. $48 well spent. And looking forward to the next Open Ears, where I can hopefully experience more of the aurally novel.

Dining at Bhima’s

The place we were asked to comment on for Where to Eat in Canada was Bhima’s Warung. (Coincidentally, the week we went there, the Record also reviewed them!)

Where to Eat doesn’t publish personal reviews, per se; instead, it compiles and considers all reports received to produce an overall assessment of the establishment. Therefore, when writing about Bhima’s Warung, I didn’t worry too much about massaging the language or whatever. Just said how it was:

Dish from Bhima'sAs requested, we went to Bhima’s Warung this week, and have a bit of mixed response.

But no issues with the starters, which were both oysters, but done different ways. I had the item on the regular menu, which is freshly shucked oyster in a warm lemongrass, ginger, chili, and garlic sauce. The sauce was really nice (spicy!), and really covered up the taste of oyster (such as it is). On the second I deliberately took less sauce to assess the oyster itself better, and they were really nice, seemed very fresh. My husband had a special that day, which was oysters baked with coconut (medium spicy). Haven’t had good baked oyster experiences in the past, but we enjoyed these. The texture does get a little bit can tuna-like, but the coconut flavoring was very nice, and it had nice crispyness to it. In both cases, the price was $4 per oyster, and you could choose how many you wanted.

The restaurant had a good number of wines available by the glass, which we appreciated. I had a NZ Sauvigon Blanc with that, which worked well, and my husband had an ON Gerwurtz.

For the main course, I chose another regular menu item, tandoori-baked Cornish hen stuffed with sticky rice, with a side of pickled vegetables, naan bread, a yogurt and vegetable sauce, and a chutney ($28). My favorite part was actually the vegetables–beets, bok choy, and carrots, pickled. Surprising and nice. The naan bread was also excellent. The Cornish hen was perfectly cooked, but quite moderately seasoned. Perhaps the idea was to dip it in the flavorful chutney or white sauce; certainly it took well to doing that. The sticky rice had exactly the texture you’d expect, but was also not too flavorful.

My husband had a special entree that day, which was duck confit and a side of seared foie gras. The duck confit was really quite delicious. The foie gras was also good, but was seared to the point of having a bit of charcoal taste. It did not ruin the texture, but the charcoal flavor was a bit odd. This dish was a bit lacking in accompaniments; it came with some grilled potatoes.

So while my main was more than I could eat, my husband cleaned off his plate and helped me a bit with mine.

With those, my husband had a glass of a nice CA cabernet sauvignon and I had a German off-dry Riesling.

And, we both tried dessert. I had the baked banana with vanilla ice cream. The ice cream was very nice, freshly made (by someone, if not Bhima’s themselves). The bananas tasted fine but weren’t as crispy as other desserts of this type I’ve had, and which I would have preferred. My husband had the chocolate bread pudding with ice cream, and declared himself satisfied with that. Both desserts came with a really excellent peanut brittle.

We tried a couple teas with that. Mine was Indian spiced, and it was actually hot spicy! Not quite what I was expecting, and couldn’t finish. My husband had ginger and honey tea that was more mellow.

The service was adequate. There was quite a wait for food to arrive, and there wasn’t any refilling of water glasses. My tea arrived after my dessert (and after my husband had received his). It was friendly and reasonably attentive, but not superlative.

So it’s a bit tough to assess overall. I appreciate the creativity of the menu, and most things do turn out well. But it is pretty pricey, and I’m not sure the value proposition is quite there. (Total for the meal was $170 with tax but before tip.)

My first paid restaurant reviewing gig

The email was a bit strange, with a plea for help interspersed with complaints about having to use an “infernal machine” (the computer??) and a request for my phone number.

But the email address looked totally legit, one that I had indeed previously sent unsolicited restaurant reviews to.

It was Jean who had the bright idea of calling the publishing house to see if the email was for real.

“Oh yeah,” we learned. “Anne hates using the computer. But she does need help with restaurant reviews in KW.”

And so I ended up in conversation with the long-time writer of Where to Eat in Canada. I was able to give recent verbal reports on Verses and 20 King (now Bistro 41), but the other two she needed information on, I hadn’t been to in quite a while.

“Would you be willing to go to one of them in the next two weeks? I’ll pay you.”

So just like that, my first paid restaurant review. Not I’ll be credited, mind you. And as for the payment… Well, I won’t be making enough to cover the meal (for two), let alone make a profit.

Still, I’m excited. And in the way of restaurant reviewers, I’m staying mum about my target establishment until the dining is done and reported on.

All this for $36

In yet another week where we seem to have something on every night, tonight’s event was a wine-paired dinner at Bloom, the newly named student-run restaurant at Conestoga College. But I just couldn’t resist the offer when it showed up in my mailbox.

It was a four-course dinner, with wine, for $36. The featured winery was Fielding Estates. The menu was as follows.

Amuse: Apple turnover, red pepper mousse, and spicy sausage of some type. Seems a weird mix, but every thing was quite nice.

Starter: Lobster Bisque scented with Vanilla and Basil
Wine: 2008 Fielding Chardonnay

I was very impressed with this wine, which turned out to be a small batch of 200 cases, so I may not get to have it again. The lobster bisque was also nicely done. I wasn’t so sure about vanilla scenting it, but it was a moderate flavoring, just giving the soup a touch of sweetness. The little spoon we were given to eat it with was kind of awkward, but it did look cute with the little bowl.

Second course: Salt Cured Foie Gras accompanied by Mango and Pineapple Salsa served on Toasted Brioche
Wine: 2008 Fielding Gerwurztraminer

They do a nice cold foie gras here. It’s not strongly foie gras flavored, but has a lovely texture. Mango isn’t totally in season and so the texture wasn’t ideal, but that’s a quibble. The taste was still fine. The Gerwurtz, which is available at LCBO, was less impressive than the Chardonnay but still a very nice wine.

Main: Navarin of Lamb, Mint and Celeriac Sauce, Sweet Potato Rosti and Harvard Beets.
Wine: 2008 Fielding Carbernet-Syrah

A “navarin” turns out to be a stew kind of thing, combined with peas and potatoes along with the celeriac. The whole thing had a slight sweetness that was quite appealing, and excellent texture. The rosti and beets were a little tougher than they should be, but tasted quite. The wine was quite delicious. Not big, but fruity enough and with the acidity necessary to make it food friendly. It’s a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Syrah. Available from the winery.

Dessert: Chocolate and Caramel Baked Alaska
Wine: 2007 Select Later Harvest Gewurtztraminer

The wine was very nice, with an apple sweetness to it. It didn’t quite stand up to the dessert, but that’s OK. The dessert on its own was quite fine. The caramel was pretty subtle, with the slightly chocolatey meringue and ice cream predominating.

All in all, definitely a deal for $36.

The service had the slight awkwardness one might expect of students learning their craft, and generally lacking in downright funny moments of the now mythical “wine cupboard” night. But it was slightly amusing to be told that they had only one type of tea, “and I’m not sure what it is. It starts with O.”

 

 

Starting in September

I was pleased–and, I admit, a little surprise–to read that Edwin Outwater, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s young, hunky, charismatic, and talented conductor has renewed his contract through to 2015. I thought he would be lured away.

Not sure if I ever got around to mentioning how blown away we were by the Symphony’s Carmina Burana last year (the season closer). Never mind Tommy; that was the real original rock opera. It’s only disguised as classical music. But really, it’s all sex and drugs and debauchery… It’s rock’n’roll, baby.

This year’s Pops lineup looked so appealing we’ve signed up for all 8 shows, despite the sticker shock of buying that many tickets at once (good seats, of course). This Friday begins with a reprise of one my favorites from the past: Cirque de la Symphonie. It’s the closest we get to Cirque du soleil in this town.

Tons of TV shows seem to be starting this week as well, even before all the summer favorites (Mad Men, So You Think You Can Dance Canada) are done. Not sure there’s room in the schedule for any new shows. I’m rarely very good at picking out the new shows that will last, anyway, so perhaps it’s best not to even start until it’s clearer who the survivors will be.

It’s even back to school time for me, as our ballroom dance classes commence the last week of September.

So many leisure activities to fit in. I get mildly stressed thinking about it, which seems sort of backward.

The Bauer Kitchen and Angel’s Gate Winery restaurant

This weekend we had visitors, so we ate out a couple of times.

The Bauer Kitchen is a relatively new restaurant, the latest in a series by The Charcoal Group. I’ve always found Charcoal restaurants to be solid but unexciting, but was curious to try Bauer mainly because every item on the menu is paired with a particular wine by the glass.

Being lodged in a renovated factory, the place itself has a fair amount of character, which is nice. The high ceilings and Saturday night popularity made it somewhat loud, though. The service was perfectly respectable. Pretty informal (“Hi guys!”), but attentive, and no big waits for orders, food delivery, or bill pick-up.

As a starter, I had the mixed mushrooms tart with St. André and Romano cheese. I had some fear would be too cheesy, but that was not the case; the mushroom taste predominated, and was very good. That was paired with a Chilean pinot. Others at our table had cold melon soup with prosciutto, part of the Summerlicious menu, and declared it merely OK, and baked brie with sugared pecans and fruit. It’s hard to go wrong with baked brie.

For the main course, I went for the Cioppino. This version was a pile of tomato-y onions and sweet peppers, topped with several kinds of fish and seafood. I was pleasantly surprised how well the fish was done, with nothing overcooked. The vegetables had a definite sweet tinge, which was not unappealing. Also tried was the duck, found to be good but not great (nice sauce, but possibly overcooked); baked trout that was apparently also prepared very well; and prosciutto-wrapped pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes, both a hit. My dish came with an Australian white of a type of grape I’d never heard of before, and now can’t remember. But it was fine, maybe a bit Chardonnay-like, and did suit the food.

Dessert for me was a mix of sorbet and fruit in an ice wine sauce. I couldn’t really detect the ice wine, but the sorbet was very nice. I had that with one of their specialty coffees (instead of the recommended ice wine), made with steamed milk rather than whipped cream. The other two desserts were declared perfectly appealing as well.

Overall, of course, it was not Verses or Langdon Hall quality, but then again, it’s cheaper as well. I would declare the Bauer Kitchen good value for the money.

Sunday we headed out to Beamsville to visit a few wineries. After a stop at Rosewood, where I got a Gewurtz and a Riesling, we went for lunch at Angel’s Gate Winery. The menu is quite different: It offers four platters, all intended to serve two people, on these themes: Regional, Quebec, East Coast, and cheese. We went for Regional and cheese. Then, most of us also opted for flights of wine, which is 2 ounces of four of their wines.

The Regional platter was really nice, with lamb loin, absolutely delicious tomatoes, green beans done up nicely in a truffle sauce, pickerel fillet, and crepes with berries and goats cheese. The cheese assortment included Cheddar, a Hermitage blue, a brie, and another, with a good selection of fruit and crackers.

The setting there is gorgeous: an open terrace looking out over the vineyard. And Sunday was beautiful; a perfect day for that type of lunch. Having four types of wine and so many types of food was great fun, and really, the perfect way to taste wine. Though in the end, I only bought their Tavel-style rosé (just $11.95!).

Après lunch, we headed to Crown Bench Estates, known for their flavored ice wines. Jean’s sister picked up a few of those, but we stuck to the 2007 reds, bringing home the Meritage, which is a blend.

Somewhat rounding out the culinary weekend (which, Saturday, also featured a stop at the Olive Grove in Elora, for olive oil and vinegar tasting), we made a foie gras and duck breast supper, all based on LCBO recipes. The duck was accompanied by beets, oyster mushrooms, and mint, in olive oil and balsamic, and it turned out really well. (Yes, better than at Bauer Kitchen.) The side of Jamie Oliver roasted potatoes, with very fresh rosemary and sage, were also a hit.

Now, to exercise.

Langdon Hall

So for the anniversary on Sunday, we finally went to Langdon Hall.

Jean would be quick to point out that it wasn’t his first time there (his work has its privileges), but it was mine. Though we are foodies, and this was recently named one of the top 100 restaurants in the world, the price has always given us pause. But we finally decided to go for it. Key to enjoyment is to not obsess too much about the cost. Though it is impossible to ignore completely.

The setting of the place is beautiful. The dining room is not all that big, really, and is very bright—lots of windows. Of course, it’s all fine linens and nice antique furnishings.

Although the menu was hardly huge—about five appetizers, five entrees, plus an option to have a five-course dinner with matching wines—we spent quite a while with it, debating and trying to decide what to opt for. It didn’t help that the wine list was a virtual catalog. Mind you, an excellent way to narrow the options was to stick to bottles under $75. “OK, so no white burgundies. And most especially no red burgundies! Champagne is out….” And so on.

In the end, we decided on the three-course approach. After giving our order, they brought bread and butter—both made in-house. In-house bread I’d experienced before; in-house butter was a first. And delicious with large salt crystals.

My appetizer was… actually kind of disgusting. I had to not think about it too much. It was foie gras (that’s not the disgusting part) and pig’s head. They didn’t even have a fancy name for it. Just pig’s head. And it didn’t help that the texture was… Odd. Fortunately, the taste was delightful. Some of the best cold foie gras I’ve had, with that other thing. And the sides of gooseberry and salt were beautiful flavor bursts. With that, I had a very nice glass of 1994 Daniel Lenko late harvest riesling (just $10!).

Jean’s starter was cold poached sable fish with an assortment of other items (always harder for me to remember stuff I didn’t personally eat). I tasted the fish, and it was really nice. He had that with a 2007 Tawse Pinot Noir, which we got a half bottle of.

As my main course, I went with potato-encrusted halibut with a side of morels and asparagus. (And had the Pinot with that; very nice, easy-drinking light red.) I took one bite of one asparagus, swooned, and dropped another piece in Jean’s plate for him to try. The fish on its own, though, was one slight misfire of the whole dinner: it was slightly overdone, slightly dry. But when eaten with the encrusted potato, it was delicious.

And the morels. What amazing little food items those are. And, these ones were grown right at Langdon Hall. So that’s some fresh.

Jean’s beef strip loin was also accompanied by those morels. He also got some wonderful peas. And the meat? Really good; I tasted that also. The pinot seemed too light to go with that, so he had a glass of a Spanish tempranillo. It was full and fruity, and though he didn’t find it very complex, it did suit the food very well. (The sommelier—who is a woman, which seems slightly unusual—had recommended it.)

And then, dessert. We both picked a proper dessert, then Jean asked about the cheese, and got seduced in that direction instead. He chose four: a bleu de Charlevoix (we have visited that producer), la Sauvagine (his favorite cheese), a Belgian red (new to us; it was nice), and a chèvre noir. And, he asked for something non-alcoholic to go with that, as he had to drive home soon. That unusual request took the bartender four attempts, we were told, but they did come up with a nice cocktail of rosewater, mint, cranberry, and soda water.

I had the best-tasting dark chocolate in the world over chocolate mousse with delicious in-season Ontario strawberries. Oh, my God. And there was also a nice swirl of hazelnut mouse. I drank decaf cafe latte with that.

Jean did slightly over-order on cheese, and couldn’t quite finish, but otherwise, they did a great job of providing enough but not too much food over the three courses. We concluded that they weren’t necessarily better than Verses in cooking quality, but Langdon has their own brand of originality, a more frequently changing menu, and a real local focus, down to growing their own food. It’s not going to be a regular haunt, but we’re really glad we braved the sticker shock and experienced dinner there.

Magnetic North magnificence

Another thing I like is having Good Seats when I go to any kind of live performance. It’s to the point where I will avoid going completely if I Good Seats aren’t available—or are outrageously priced. Because I’ve tried, and I just know that being too far from the stage really does diminish my enjoyment.

Hence it was that we ended up at a performance of Norman last night.

Norman was playing locally as part of the Magnetic North theatre festival. I had never heard of this festival before, but apparently it’s been running for a number of years now. Every other year it goes to a new Canadian city; otherwise, it’s put on in Ottawa. This year is Kitchener-Waterloo’s turn.

When I heard about it, it sounded like something interesting and that I wanted to support. I was especially excited that Rick Mercer was doing a show as part of the festival. But when I finally remembered to try to get tickets for Rick’s show, the seats just weren’t that Good. Row M, kind of off to the side. It was dimming my enthusiasm.

So I looked through the program for what else might work, and Norman sounded interesting:

Most of us grew up with the work of Norman McLaren. Between slick Saturday morning cartoons or on clunky classroom projectors, McLaren’s mesmerizing work slid unexpectedly into the lives of generations of Canadians.

In the internationally acclaimed Norman, ground-breaking projection technology allows a performer to physically interact with the cinematic universe of award-winning Canadian film pioneer Norman McLaren. Join us as they delve into the vaults of Canada’s National Film Board to combine technology, animation and theatre in an unforgettable visual experience.

Seats were not actually being assigned for this, which made me think they weren’t expecting a big crowd. Smaller crowds always greatly enhance your chance of Good Seats. So I got tickets for that.

The performance was at 7:00. We arrived around 6:35 to find the Centre in the Square looking eerily empty, with maybe 10 other people there at that point? So yeah, no problem getting Good Seats!

As the performance approached, fortunately, more people showed up. The crowd was still one of the smallest I’ve seen at the Centre, but at least had swelled to filled all the best seats in the house (though all the bad ones were empty).

I wasn’t terribly clear on what we were about to see, Jean even less so—he had no idea who Norman McLaren was, and had been telling people he was going to something called Daniel that night. After a short announcement, which concluded with the reminder to turn off your cell phones, the lights dimmed, all went quiet, and…

Someone’s cell phone started ringing. Couldn’t believe it!

That is, until I realized that this was part of the show. The single performer, dancer Peter Trosztmer, talked on the phone on his way to the stage, then addressed us about his obsession with Norman McLaren.

The 90 minutes that followed are really hard to describe, but were completely riveting. Peter would talk about McLaren, show parts of his films, but also interact with them in dance movements. He would dance between the intersecting lines. He would bat away the assembling and dissembling balls. He pulled away Norman’s chair in the well-known Chairy Tale, then interacted with his own. He became one of the dancers in the beautiful Pas de Deux.

I don’t know how they did it all, but it was absolutely brilliant.

Intersected with these film/dance pieces were documentary bits, in which holographic images of various people who worked with McLaren spoke about him. Also shown were some interviews with McLaren himself. It all gave me a much deeper appreciation of McLaren’s genius, particularly his skill at making music visual. It makes me want to go watch a bunch of his movies—which, fortunately, the NFB makes easy to do. (And isn’t it fabulous that staid old Canada funds a film board where an eccentric genius can spend a lifetime producing abstract short films?)

Much as I was taken with the whole thing, I wasn’t sure how Jean would react, but I needn’t have worried. Though he opined that it could perhaps have been a tad shorter, overall, he was in awe. He loved it.

So thanks to all you people who quickly snapped up the Good Mercer Seats, thus leading me to one of most intriguing live performances I’ve ever seen.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

I can’t say that I was never a big Elvis fan.

Back in Grade 3, my teacher was a nun. (Catholic school system, natch.) Over lunch, she’d play music. Some French stuff (it was also a French school). Some religious stuff. And an Elvis album.

Now, Elvis (I’ve since learned) has done a lot of gospel, but that’s not what she played. She played his rock’n’roll stuff. I didn’t find it odd at the time, but thinking back on it now, it does seem a bit odd. But it also says something about his mass appeal (pun not intended, but there it is).

Anyway, of all the music she played, this was the only bit I really cottoned to. I liked me some Elvis. I started bugging my parents to get me one of his albums. Eventually they did—one of the greatest hits things, I guess. I would play it, studiously looking over the cover art, the song list.

But not that long after, I moved on to my next musical love, the Bay City Rollers. (Eight-year-olds are so flighty.) And I never really got back to Elvis. I did and do appreciate that he’s a very influential figure in music history. I watched Jonathan Rhys in the really good Elvis miniseries, and thought that was a very poignant story. But I don’t really listen to him much, and can’t really call myself a fan.

So I had no particular expectations walking into the latest Electric Thursdays concert, Elvis: The Way It Was. But the few I had were immediately shattered when the band walked out to join the KW Symphony. Hey, where’s Peter Brennan? Where’s the Jean’s’Classics band?

Turns out that this was to be the first-ever Electric Thursdays concert to not be scored by Brennan. Instead, conductor Daniel Warren took the honours. In fact, the whole thing was his idea.

Elvis impersonator Stephen Kabakos.
Stephen Kabakos as Elvis

The part of “Elvis” was played Stephen Kabakos. In look and sound, he was a reasonable facsimile of “The King.” But he didn’t pretend to be Elvis. He referred to himself as Stephen, and said he was just playing tribute to his favorite singer.

The show was structured according to various famous Elvis appearances: The Hawaii concert. The movies. The Ed Sullivan Show. Vegas. The comeback show in ’68 (hey, I remember that one from the Jonathan Rhys movie!). This required a certain number of costume changes, and you could definitely feel the energy drop when Kabakos wasn’t on stage. But it was fun to get kind of a “tour” of his career highlights.

The sound mix was a bit dodgy at first—we couldn’t hear the backup singers at all, and could just barely hear “Elvis”—but fortunately that was quickly resolved. I can’t really comment on the quality of the orchestration, as it really felt like it was taking a backseat to the whole Elvis show most of the time. But certainly the arrangement of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” stood out as particularly beautiful and effective.

Kabakos was in good voice, and was charismatic and funny. “Know why Elvis walked the way he did? To get the hair bounce just right,” he said, demonstrating a “normal” walk with no bounce, and the Elvis swagger, with bounce.

“Why do I always end up sitting in front of a guy?” He asked, during the “sit down at the edge of the stage and sing right into the audience” portion of “Love Me Tender”.

“The men are always dragged kicking and screaming to an Elvis show. The women are like, ‘We’re going to be late’! But guys… The suits are available for rent. Totally worth it.”

To an audience shout that he “take it off” when he commented that the leather outfit was very warm, “You have no idea how long it took to put it on!”

All in all, a fun night out, and a worthy tribute.