This past Saturday, we witnessed Deaf Havana playing their first ever Canadian show.
Lee, Matthew, James, Chris, Tom, and Max.
We saw Deaf Havana open for You Me At Six at Wembley in December 2012 and I quite enjoyed them (they’re really popular in the UK). So when they announced that they were finally coming to North America, I was pretty excited – especially when I found out the Toronto show was a headlining show, and not just a short opening set (they’ve been touring the US with Ash for the past month).
The show was at the Rivoli. I had never been there, but, after eating dinner in their restaurant portion before the show, I highly recommend their Long Island Iced Teas. The venue is small (capacity is apparently 200 people) but since there isn’t really a backstage, the band was literally walking through the crowd to get on stage.
Two local bands opened: Friday Night Trend were decent but I refuse to support them because they (particularly their drummer) insisted on walking back and forth, shoving agressively through the crowd, while Deaf Havana was playing, which is a really douchey move. The second band, Auckland (also local), were pretty good – they have a bit of a Two Door Cinema Club vibe (that’s a good thing).
Deaf Havana didn’t go on until about 10:45pm and they played until just after midnight. The whole band was very grateful the entire time. As I mentioned, it was their first time in Canada, and to have the show sell out was a huge achievement for them (it was 19+ and sold out the day of; if it had been all ages, it probably would have sold out earlier).
We are sick and we are tired. We’re all fools and worthless liars. Young and unemployable, lonely, drunk, and beautiful, we’re so sick and oh so tired.
One of the bonuses of playing a small room is that band-audience interaction is very easy. So, at the end of the night, before they played “Mildred” (which I was really looking forward to ), half the crowd shouted requests for “Nicotine And Alcohol Saved My Life” (off of 2009’s Meet Me Halfway At Least) and, despite not having played it live in almost two years, they obliged. Which was pretty cool, because not a lot of bands would take requests from a crowd.
It just seems, seems like we lost a friend. It feels like the end.
There was another song someone had requested before the show (I can’t remember which one – one of the older songs), and James insisted on playing it while the other band members drank beers and loitered around on stage. He also lead the audience in a loud rendition of “Happy Birthday” for their drummer, Tom.
DH are one of those bands where I forget how much I enjoy them until I listen to them again. They’re also one of those bands who sound so good live, it makes you wonder why you didn’t listen to them earlier. As we were leaving, I overheard Tom tell someone they would be back in May…and I for one, will definitely be in the audience for them.
bellsiebooks 