Dakota Tavern – // hater-high.com

Danny Michel @ Dakota Tavern

Published by haterhigh on January 18, 2013

. : : September 18th, 2012 : : . Only a handful of weeks after Whitehorse‘s Toronto album release party for The Fate Of The World Depends On This Kiss at the Dakota Tavern, Six Shooter Records‘ album mate Danny Michel followed suit with a last minute show at one of Toronto’s best sounding, most intimate venues to introduce the world to his latest disc, Black Birds Are Dancing Over Me. And when I say last minute, I mean last minute. Even though I follow Danny and Six Shooter on all the major social medias, I didn’t even know it was happening until some 12-hours before it started. Luckily, my…

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Whitehorse @ Dakota Tavern

Published by haterhigh on January 16, 2013

. : : August 28th, 2012 : : . I get asked a lot if I’m excited for upcoming concerts. I don’t know if it’s just that I’m not that excitable, or if I’ve been to too many to feel excitement with any frequency or intensity, but the answer is almost always “no.” I don’t feel any real sense of anticipation for a performance long before a show starts. Maybe, just maybe, once I get to the venue, or just as the band takes the stage, but days, weeks or even months before the show? I shrug, people frown in confusion, and…

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Colleen Brown @ Dakota Tavern

Published by haterhigh on January 21, 2012

. : : January 20th, 2012 : : . As I mentioned in yesterday’s Kathleen Edwards blog post, with a unheard of two week vacation that would take me out of the country, I fully expected a flood of bands I love to perform shows in my favourite Toronto venues while I was away. So, yeah, I breathed a large sigh of relief when I saw that Colleen Brown HAD booked a headlining show in Toronto, finally, and it would be some three days after I got BACK in town. The evening sun set early, and as it disappeared behind the horizon, it brought a sheet…

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Colleen Brown @ Dakota Tavern

Published by haterhigh on November 7, 2011

. : : November 5th, 2011 : : . I often start my blogs talking about how crazy early I arrive to shows, and all the hi-jinx I get up to at the venue early. My penchant for early arrival often means I’m the butt of playful jokes of friends and family, but every once and I while, I get a sobering reminder of just why I show up to shows so ridiculously early. Let’s back up a little, shall we? Long time readers of this blog may recognize the name Colleen Brown. Last summer, I was privileged enough to see Ms. Brown…

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Emm Gryner @ Dakota Tavern

Published by haterhigh on November 7, 2011

. : : November 5th, 2011 : : . A few weeks ago, Emm Gryner sent out a Twitter message saying (and I might be paraphrasing), “If you don’t like laptops on stage, you’re too old.” Now, for those of you whom read my review / download of her last show in Toronto at the Drake Underground, you’ll likely recall she performed with the SHVRS brothers, a duo that spent the majority of the evening pushing buttons and turning knobs. Not to take anything away from the team; they were very clearly talented and great at what they do, but it was this reviewers opinion that what…

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Kathleen Edwards @ Dakota Tavern

Published by haterhigh on August 29, 2011

. : : August 28th, 2011 : : . It’s safe to say that this blog has been built on the back of the success of my half dozen Kathleen Edwards concert recordings. I sometimes think that all the hits I get every day are from people who check my blog just in case they somehow missed a Kathleen Edwards show and want to see if they can download it. Truthfully, it’s been just over a year since Kathleen Edwards played a last minute set at The Dakota Tavern right before going into the studio to work on her forth-coming and as-of-yet publicly untitled album. The…

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Julie Fader @ Dakota Tavern

Published by haterhigh on August 17, 2010

. : : August 3rd, 2010 : : . I went into Julie Fader‘s set opening for Kathleen Edwards at the Dakota Tavern as a blank slate — I’d never heard of her, let alone heard her, and was hoping to be wowed. I’m glad I went into it with no expectations, because I probably would have been very let down. Julie’s songs are all very down-tempo and decidedly undynamic. I don’t mean that to sound insulting: bands such as Azure Ray have pulled it off to great effect. Julie has all the right ingredients — a beautiful voice, serious guitar skills, and a clear knack for crafting songs. However, the…

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The Heartbroken @ Dakota Tavern

Published by haterhigh on August 15, 2010

. : : August 3rd, 2010 : : . After Kathleen Edwards special “solo” set at the Dakota Tavern, HaterHigh.com was lucky enough to spend some time chatting with the talented singer-songwriter about her new material, collaborating with John Roderick, and more. No sooner do I bid Kathleen a fond farewell than my friend and companion for the night meets me by the bar and suggests I tape the band warming up on stage. So enraptured by the conversation, I hadn’t even noticed another band had gone on. My new friend Steffan from Turn It Up Or Turn It Off photography caught up to me…

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Kathleen Edwards @ Dakota Tavern

Published by haterhigh on August 5, 2010

. : : August 3rd, 2010 : : . Kathleen Edwards is full of surprises. It started off with a scant 8-day last minute announcement on her Facebook fan page (no announcement on either her MySpace.com blog, or official dot-com site) that she would be doing a special “solo” show for her friends at the Dakota Tavern. Tickets went on sale less than a week before show time, and were only available online. Rumours surfaced in line that although the Dakota has a capacity of 130 people, only 80 tickets were made available, which sold out promptly. Another surprise was the announcement that although…

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Kathleen Edwards @ Dakota Tavern

Published by haterhigh on April 26, 2010

. : : September 16th, 2008 : : . My first exposure to Kathleen Edwards was at North By North-East (NXNE) in June of 2007. OK, that was a lie — my real first exposure to Kathleen was in her duet with Jim Cuddy on his too-cute-to-be-camp song Married Again. However, NXNE was my first exposure to Kathleen’s solo work. Really, I only went because I wanted to see Blue Rodeo at a venue smaller than Massey Hall or The Molson Amphitheatre (the band’s two usual haunts), and Lee’s Palace was a great candidate. The fact that I ended up…

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