Daniel Romano, Baby Eagle, and Will Kidman at The Shop, Toronto

So last night I visited Toronto’s newest venue, The Shop, located underneath the restaurant Parts & Labour in the heart of Parkdale. I remember last fall when I started hearing people talking about a new restaurant, an offshoot of Oddfellows and The Social, opening up at Queen St. W. and Sorauren Ave. that was going to have a small “punk” venue in the basement. I’m always happy when bands have new places to play, but I was mostly excited to have a venue opening up so close to my apartment (Toronto’s west-end is severely lacking in rooms to see bands I like play). The venue now known as The Shop finally opened about a month or so ago and I meant to check it out sooner but I’m glad I waited until a show I really wanted to see popped up, as was the case on Sunday night.

Will Kidman opened the night with a quick set of songs that have yet to appear on any of his albums as Woolly Leaves (I’m still not sure if he’s playing under that name anymore). I captured some video but I had a feeling, perhaps because he was still reading the lyrics off a sheet, that a lot of the songs were still being developed and I don’t like to put stuff on the internet when it’s still being worked on. You know what I mean? Maybe it doesn’t matter. Anyway, I thought all his songs were among the best he’s written, and his cover of Neil Young’s “Shots” (which he also covered in the Constantines on their 2006 split 12″ with the Unintended) was particularly cool to hear.

Next up was Baby Eagle (Steve Lambke, also of the Constantines) who brought a full band with him, which I believed he dubbed “The Proud Mothers,” composed of three quarters of Attack in Black (Spencer Burton on drums, Ian Kehoe on bass, and Daniel Romano on acoustic geetar). It was a fairly similar set to the one I witnessed back in March at The Horseshoe when he opened for Daniel, Fred & Julie, which was fine because it gave me a second chance to hear all his new songs. My verdict: I like ‘em! While not too much of a departure from the rest of his material, with song titles like “Fisherman or Fish” and “River Bank Sitter,” moving to the East-Coast definitely seems to have informed his lyrics, at the very least. He has a new record called Dog Weather coming out soon on You’ve Changed Records, but it was available at the show last night! I listened to it today!

Daniel Romano was last up, armed only with his trusty acoustic and Bruce Peninsula‘s Misha Bower singing in harmony – the same formation I saw just over a month ago at his album release show at The Dakota Tavern. It was nice to see a lot more people come out to Sunday’s show, the record seems to be picking up steam and there were a lot of people up front listening attentively, but enough people towards the back of the room talking loudly and playing foosball made for a worse experience than at The Dakota. That’s okay though, there a plenty of other venues in the city that are better geared towards folk music. I think The Shop will be a good place to see louder music, when a little bit of chatter isn’t such a distraction.

Now that I think about it, are there any good places to see quiet music in Toronto? I mentioned The Dakota before, but even that place gets loud when there enough people there. I guess the only time you’re going to find a quiet room is if it’s a large venue and people have paid a lot of money to be there (Massey Hall for example). Any bar with a cheap enough cover is going to attract people who aren’t there for the music, and that’s okay. I feel fortunate enough that I can even see musicians I like on a weekly basis playing rooms that I can afford. What are your thoughts on this subject?