may we wrap the month of may for the Hooligans?

Been a busy month for Those Handsome Hooligans but a sign of more busier times ahead as well! adding new songs, playing gigs and keeping our gear in fine form=whew!

first our first ever show at British Arms in Barrie went swimmingly. the night ended with very loud chants of ONE MORE SONG! a sure sign that the crowd enjoyed us. one of the many mind blowing things of that night were the 2 tables of ppl that stayed from start to finish. never b4 had we seen such hardcore devotion in Hooligan fans! whoa, mind blown!

our second gig of the month was a season ender party for the dart league in Innisfil. now these fine folk know how to party! once we did our soundcheck song, they never sat down the entire evening. another first for the Hooligans! our 2nd set of tunes was over 90 minutes strait. our finger tips could feel the burn and we barely made it thru the 3rd and last set. can’t wait to play there again as rumours are running rampant that we will return to the Innisfil area for NYE.

this past month we got our gear finally set up for the season. more on that in a post to come. for now, here’s some hooligan pics!

stage at lions club innisfil. yes the floor is slanted like that!

our eb3 takes a break at british arms. it was due for a setup after this show.

the creatures came out at british arms!

so did James from the Decibel Kings! sweet!

time 2 hooliganize!

things have been pumpin’ along swimmingly for Those Handsome Hooligans. 2 weeks ago, we rocked the house at Skipapalooza and this past week, we wrapped up a sweet set in Barrie for a 911 charity fundraiser. also, we’ve managed to score 13 gigs between April 14th and Sept. 8th which is quite the feat for a band made up of day jobbers with fams. we are nearing 50 songs on the setlist and a run of tees are on the horizon. we were already pretty tight with the weekly practices but now that we have so many shows, the tip of the rock iceberg remains to be seen. goin’ to be a lot of rockin’ out these next few months. lets hope the body can handle it and we’ll see how high it can soar!

here’s a few posters for our upcoming shows in Barrie this Spring/Summer. hope to see you there!

fly by July!

wow.  july flew by!  where to begin?  how about where we left off?

TooNice played 3 shows in the middle of the month.  the Friday was an intense hr long set at the British Arms in Barrie as part of the New Music Fest.  the joint was packed and much to our delight, ppl started movin and groovin the moment we started.  that is twice now we’ve played BA and gotten a great response.  only time will tell if we’re lucky enuff to play there again soon!  the Saturday was a full night at the Iron Horse in Cookstown.  just us and a few choice regulars made for an intimate and interactive evening.  great time and lots of tomfoolery!  we do recall having to swat a lot of mosquitos during our playing as we were nestled right near the patio doors.  the next night we were back again at the Barrie New Music Festival to play a 20 minute set during the awards show.  TooNice was nominated for “best reggae” and though we were the only act to play and not win, we got to chat and network with a lot of varied artists.  that made the evening all worthwhile.  if you like Sloan, u gotta check out Sweet Mack!  great band!

the following weekend was the triumphant return of Those Handsome Hooligans!  we were playing a mash up summer bash-bday party-buying a new house celebration outdoors.  but the rain made us start the evening inside and then we made the shift outdoors once the skies cleared up.  that was sonically odd to us as we got used to how the band sounded inside for a set and with the move outdoors not only was there more room to groove but we sounded so much different!  it made for a great evening of live music in a fairly spacey area beside a pool and a fire.  talk about picturesque! every1 in attendance was blown away by our hooligasm sets and much dancing was had. pretty much every1 said they could not believe how much of a difference it made having a real band play at a party. take that ipods! we were happy with our playing for the most part.  we hadn’t had much jam time in the lead up with members being away on vac etc but the tunes sure felt REAL darn good to finally let loose on!  we also played an epic set of 19 songs in a row that felt like 5 mins went by.  gather that must be a good thing.  we coulda played til the sun came up!

the last weekend of the month was back to reggae with TooNice.  we played a quaint lounge on the Friday in Woodbridge.  a few ppl danced but many regulars were away for the long weekend.  we made the most of it though.  we got to go over in a live setting a lot of material we hadn’t done in awhile.  that will help us in August as the band has many more high profile gigs on the radar.  one track nearly killed us and our finger tips.  time off followed by a lot of playing was finally catching up to our poor fingers.

looking back, july was busy month musically and to think we even squeezed some downtime and some horseplay in there too!  crazy!

sizing up the competition

Canada Day Week Recap

TooNice Covers!

ya, so its a tad late but we’ve been busy.  giggin the week of Canada Day with TooNice was off the charts.  it started with what was supposed to be a laid back nite at the Boardwalk Pub in Toronto.  it was a wednesday and our first visit there but little did we know that teachers would be packing the place.  school had just been let out for summer and they all wanted to PARTY! a great 3 hrs of almost non-stop roots reggae was the cure for what ales them indeed!  too bad we had to stop around 1130 as we were playing the patio and for most of the world, the next day was a work day…

the very next morning we got up early to be on Rogers TV Barrie to promote ourselves and the upcoming Barrie New Music Fest.  that was a first for us, playing bass on TV!  it was fun of course and somehow we got conned into doing most of the talking during the interview.  though to the interviewers credit, he managed to get the others involved as well.  a few short hours after that, it was off to Hamilton for an awesome gig with the Saints Are Coming!  wow, we love that band!  we had never been to the Casbah b4 but had heard many stories of it.  its status in Cdn touring culture is epic.   after playing many small gigs since mid-may it was great to hear our bass in a huge room at a huge volume.  we were in bass heaven!  our hour long set was worth every drop of sweat. as for the Saints Are Coming, we couldn’t resist the dancefloor!  their infectious take on celtic-inspired numbers takes the cake!  can’t wait to play with them and/or see them again soon!  great atmosphere at the Casbah and fingers crossed for a hasty return.

the very next day was Canada Day and we’re back the Boardwalk Pub for a few afternoon sets.   we know from history that canada day at woodbine beach is a hot ticket but the shear volume of ppl was beyond even our expectations.  playing the only beach venue to literally thousands of ppl in and outside the venue was worth every second of negotiating the crowds to get there.  perfect weather and perfect tunes.  was so impressed by the Responsables .  they played a few sets as well and tore it up!  great times and after an afternoon of sun and heat, it was time for rest and relaxation on the friday evening.

the last gig of the week was a super casual, low key acoustic gig at the Sheesha Lounge in Toronto.  this place on Bloor has food and drink(non-alcoholic) but its main focus is tea smoking thru huge bongs!  needless to say, the vibe was pretty chill.  we played 3 hours to an appreciative crowd and looking back, it was the perfect ending to a hectic week of shows.

as for our bass playing… prior to the set of shows we had set a manta of: “no mistakes will be repeated“.  and they weren’t!  we’ve come to the realization that we will always make some mistakes in our live bass playing.  exactly what they will be is the surprise!  we come to the gigs as prepared as possible but we can never predict what can happen onstage.  another fun aspect that we hadn’t thought of encountering when we started.  onwards and upwards!

lets do the disc as a setlist, k?

TooNice's debut, "Change"

So the idea for Friday’s CD release show with TooNice is to play the new album as a set.  That is… the setlist for the show is the CD in the order as it appears on the CD.  A different concept for us as usually setlists are put together with the thought of the live show and how we want the energy to flow.  The album track order was put together with the thought of the listener at home, kickin’ back and enjoying.  How will that order play out?  Well having reviewed the album the last few days as a set, it should do ok.  Maybe not the best set ever, but it will be fun “one time only event” nonetheless.  It will also be a different night for us, as we usually like to have a few covers sprinkled into the set.  If any of those come up, it’ll have to be as an encore!

In other news, the Bassmetaphors is off the pedalboard for good.  Too much noise and tone loss in our books.  We gave it a honest go for a few months and now with the BassPi on board as our distortion source, the cons were outweighing the pros of keeping the Bassmetaphors “on board”.  In its place, is ol’-reliable-first-pedal-we-ever-owned, the Tech21 sans amp bass driver DI. Reunited and it feels so good.