Continued: May 12 Sound Academy, Toronto

It's been two days since the show - and I've decided there weren’t enough awesome details in my first review. A lot of things happened during the show that I neglected to mention before - and that's unfair to the readers and the band. Onward!!

As usual - Cedric was a bloody maniac, but I noticed some strange additions to the party in his head. First up, he had a strange feedback instrument that he had hooked up to a few different pedals. It was a straight 1/4 inch thick flexible pole that stood about a foot and a half tall. He would occasionally attack this pole which was charged and created really fucked up sounds that were totally un-balanced to the rest of the band. With his left arm he'd swat the pole with no such rhyme or reason. With his right arm he would aggressively twist knobs, push buttons and drink tea.

Wait, drink tea?

Yeah, I noticed as soon as the curtain dropped that there was some smoky steam rising up from the Cedrics main table of goodies. I couldn't tell what it was, at first it looked like some of his equipment was short circuiting. After about 10 minutes the steam was gone and a techy crept out from backstage, grabbed to cold tea, and replaced it with a hot new mug. This went on all show. Every 10 minutes, a techy would come out and refresh his tea. Cedric would sip on the tea frequently, but not enough to warrant all those cups!! Considering how long the show was, the techy brought him a fresh cup probably 15-20 times, hilarious! I must say, the steam added a nice ambience to the stage. I'm guessing his voice box is shattered or something, and he'd drink the tea to ease his trachea.

One thing I want to mention to all fans of TMV in Toronto - Stop throwing your fucking garbage at the band. Close to the start of the show, some asshole whipped a full cup at Cedric that just missed hitting him, but some of the liquid went in his hair. Cedric addressed the crowd but no one could understand him. Mind you, this isn't the first time - and it happens at almost any show. Anyways...

Enough of that - I wanted to mention some really excellent parts of the show. During Tetragrammaton, Omar and Adrian had a wicked solo section. Omar would shit a lick out of his crazy fingers, then Adrian would match it on his tenor sax! It was actually unbelievable how good Adrian is. This was the first time he really got his own time to shine - and the crowd loved it! This section went on for about 2-3 minutes, the entire band giving jeers of encouragement. It was an awesome sight.

Only a few moment before this ridiculous guitar/sax battle, another key member of the band got his time in the sun. Ikey ripped an intense organ solo that was about as psychedelic as they come. His style, as we know, is very unique and often out of this world! His 2 minute solo was truly excellent. Everyone in the crowd starred as Ikey threw his torso and head around in every direction, sliding his hands up and down the keys, creating a truly memorizing wave of harmonics. As his epic moment drew to an end, the band picked up his notes and so began Viscera Eyes.

Some more highlights include Thomas Pridgeon whacking one of his fingers mid song. Is anybody surprised? The guy moves so bloody fast, it's bound to happen. He shook it off, rubbed the finger up and down a few times, and before you know it - he's back into a seemingly endless drum roll - rock on dude, you're actually a fuckin' machine. I love how excited he gets too, he often jumps up using his kick foot and throws his left foot up in the air, smiling wildly. During the final moments of the concert, Thomas launched his left stick way into the air and made no effort to get a new one - instead he used his now free hand to mute his consecutive crashes before cutting the lights..

The band bowed individually - and the fans responded accordingly.

Bravo - I love this band.