Spiral Beach

WHO: Spiral Beach
WHERE: Amigo's
WHEN: Aug. 16/07

Spiral Beach blew my mind.

"How old are these guys?" I heard from audience members over and over.

What I was focused intently on was their aesthetic. They decorated the stage with rope lights and pylons before the show. They had a sign with their names on it up behind them, just in case we couldn't remember who they are. Their merch table was illuminated, with a shining, rotating disco ball and black light glowing on the prices for their stuff.

The skinny foursome is travelling around the country on their own, like a rag-tag band of orphans, societal misfits, Oliver Twists. Two of them are brothers, their parents are folk singers. On one hand I feel like someone should just take them in for the evening and mother this Toronto-based foursome, but on the other hand it takes astounding gumption and maturity to hit the road as a Toronto-based indie-band when you are just barely old enough to buy cigarettes.

It's not their first tour either. Definitely more is to be expected from these young, ambitious upstarts, with their keyboard based pop. They put so much energy into the show, and creating not just a perfunctory performance, but actually trying to entertain their audience.

I was too transfixed to take pictures, which is unfortunate, because their frizzed hair and matching outfits added greatly to the neon horror-movie vibe. So cool.

Check out their myspace: www.myspace.com/spiralbeach