06.13.09 Bell Orchestre (Toronto)

I gotta say, as much as I like Vancouver, it just can't touch Toronto in terms of free shows. I think Malajube played a free show the night before, Bell Orchestre tonight, and in the next 2 months, I'll probably see Holy Fuck and Broken Social Scene. Anyways, today's show was at the Sirius Stage at Harbourfront center as part of the L'Oreal's Luminato Festival. From what I understand, it's basically an arts/life/culture festival. Lots of free shows and other events to free and feed, your mind. It's a very cool festival.

The Sirius Stage at Harbourfront Center is an outdoor stage on the Harbourfront overlooking the lake. It's also covered so the good times aren't dependent on the weather. Since this was a free show, it attracted both fans of the band, and music lovers of all varieties. Actually I was quite amused to see a large diverse number of 40-?? year olds who thought: "Sunny day, free music, ORCHESTRE ? I'm there!" despite having never heard of the band.






The band was actually introduced by none of than the Mayor of Toronto himself, flanked by one of the organizers and some Cirque de Soleil performers. Kinda cool I guess. Before they started the Mayor relayed a request by the band. They wanted people to dance. A few people stood up to the barricade, but most were content with sitting down as if they were listening to a real... uhh no, a more conventional "orchestre" err "orchestra." They played a pretty tight set of new and old songs that were really quite enjoyable, with the sun just beginning to set just as they started. Despite their best efforts, the band could only muster up minimal crowd reaction, until they played their "dance" numbers: "Les Lumieres Pt. 2", off their first album and "The Gaze", off their recently released album " As Seen Through Windows". Those 2 songs got the crowd (well some of them) off their feet and moving in the aisle (also a good way to get a better view). It was one of the band member's birthday, so there was cover tune thrown in there was well. They ended their set after a little over an hour. An encore followed, with a couple extra songs, which was kind of surprising, but was welcomed by much of the crowd.






$10/$0