Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Thursday September 05, 2024 - Toronto, ON

Road Blog
September 5, 2024
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I spent my day at my AirBB in Mississauga, Ontario working and then getting ready to head into the city for the show. Around 4pm I organized my gear and merch and dove into Toronto traffic. There’s a lot to like about Toronto – it’s very diverse, great food, great music, and I have some wonderful friends here, but I’m not gonna lie, it’s one of my top-least favorite cities to drive in. The traffic sucks, there’s gobs of it, the lights last forever, and there’s bikes, scooters, and pedestrians darting in and out everywhere. And I’m always there in the fall with a setting sun glaring into a dirty windshield, so it’s extra challenging. Boohoo.

First stop was a couple vintage stores on Queen Steet West, then one of my fav record stores Sonic Boom, where I scored a sweet Bangles 12” and a couple other things. From there it was back to replenish the parking coffer, then off to The Grand Indian Dining, where I had a nice little table and a wonderful server who put some spicy lobster vada pav and Sunday Chicken Curry in front of me and I made short work of it. I’ve got a couple good curry recipes I make at home, but I need to learn how to make some like that some day! I did a loop over to Ossington Street and hoped to dart into Rotate This, another fav record store, but traffic was extra brutal, there was no parking, frustration was mounting, and show time was approaching, so I headed over to Kensington Market.

LOLA is a small bar on the main drag of Kensington Market, which is an eclectic, diverse, and fun neighborhood that once served as the central market for Toronto’s meat and produce. It doesn’t’ really fill that role anymore, but it’s a gentrification-resistant, older, character driven area. Corina, the owner and bartender, greeted me with a smile and showed me around the stage and band room. It’s a small joint, it would be challenge to get a band in there, but for solo-acoustic stuff it’s perfect, with enough seating to make it feel full without a huge crowd.

Erika Werry played first, with her friend Mike (hope I got that right?) on nylon string guitar. If you’ve read blogs from previous visits to Toronto, you know I’m a huge fan of hers, and if you know The Tucos’ last album, Candy Coated Cannonball, you know that verse 2 of our song “Girls Named Erica” is about her too (and also mentions Sonic Boom). Her set was great, as always, and I could listen to her sing all night. I played second to a pretty decent crowd in that small room, and it was nice to be in a more listening/less socializing situation where the quieter stuff works better. After me, my ol’ pal David Picco played and it was great to hear him again after many years. He’s got great guitar chops and amazing songs and we’re heading to Montreal tomorrow together for a two-night-stand at Barfly, so it’s gonna be a hoot. A couple other friends were there – Jimmy and Woody Whelan , and I met some new friends too. A dude who’s name is escaping me (Blane?), introduced to me as “a metal drummer,” sat in with Erica for a few songs on cajon, and I invited him up for the first couple songs in my set too.

After the show we had a nightcap, chatted it up about future plans together, rounds of hugs, a few photos, and off into the night.

This morning I’m off to scoop up Dave and head east towards Quebec, then it’s the annual Hangover Golf Draft Party at Barfly! tonight, which is always a blast! We’re actually doing two nights at Barfly – Saturday too – after our Saturday show in Bolton-Ouest was cancelled with little notice or explanation, so if ya can’t make Friday or wanna hang twice – come Saturday!

Thanks to Cori and Lola for having us, thanks to Erica and David for always making Toronto awesome, and to everyone who came out! We’ll see ya tonight at Barfly! xx