Whitehorse @ Roy Thomson Hall

Whitehorse
Whitehorse @ Roy Thomson Hall

. : : June 15th, 2019 : : .

The most recently posted Whitehorse recording, about two entries back, came only a few short weeks after shuttering the previous version of this website.

My family had grown bigger, money tighter, and my web host was being a punk. I wasn’t getting any feedback from readers, leading me think everyone had (rightly) gone off to more fertile websites.

I also wasn’t entirely sold yet on Whitehorse’s full band dynamic, so when they announced their follow up Toronto date at Massey Hall — the MOST overrated venue in the city, if not the country — I skipped out on buying a ticket in the name of penny-pinching.

I justified seeing them two more times that year: once, the duo show with the erstwhile retired Kathleen Edwards opening in Port Perry (and it was free!), and another time in Ottawa at the historic National Arts Centre while I was in town visiting an old friend and fellow fan.

Although they came close, they never quite hit a public gig in Toronto in 2018, so I took a Whitehorse sabbatical that year. I likely would’ve taken 2019 off, too, given they had outgrown the best-sounding venues in the city and were moving on up to the bigger stages with the muddier sound systems, and ticket prices had inflated in tandem.

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William Prince @ Roy Thomson Hall

William Prince
William Prince @ Roy Thomson Hall

. : : June 15th, 2019 : : .

I’d never heard of William Prince before seeing his set at Roy Thomson Hall, which is crazy given how ubiquitous he’s been since releasing his Reliever album earlier this year.

Somewhat fittingly, Prince bantered over the opening chords of the night’s opening song Earthly Days, “You wouldn’t even know that it took me 15 — 20 years to be an overnight success.”

The name recognition wasn’t there, that’s true. But it wasn’t long before it was apparent that Prince wasn’t exactly a novice at this either.

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