The New Grand @ Lee's Palace

Sat Feb 24, 1996


When I first moved to Toronto, back in the mid-90s, I fell out of the indie rock loop for some time. How did I let this happen? Afterall, Toronto is one of Canada's most prominent cities, boasting countless rock clubs and seemingly endless musical opportunities. The answer was simple. I lived way up at Steeles and Keele, a cultural void of North Toronto which meant that in order to see a show I had to travel downtown. This, however, wasn't the problem. The problem was going home after a show. Toronto's transit system left much to be desired (and maybe still does) - what with the subway closing before 2:00am and extremely limited and unreliable late night bus schedules. (I write this with my NYC-bias where the subways don't shut down. And, yes, they smell like roses too). But after numerous outings of going to shows by myself, 2 to 2.5 hour commutes back home, falling asleep on the wrong late night bus and ending up in Etobicoke, waiting in the freezing cold for the Bathurst Street "blue-light" bus which came every 45 minutes to an hour, I began for the first time to moderate my late night trips to downtown clubs.

This is not to say that I stopped completely. From time to time YorkU would have some decent bands play at one or two of the campus bars and more often than not, I jumped at those opportunities. But I saved the downtown pilgrimages for special occassions. This show at Lee's Palace, featuring The New Grand, Scratching Post, Smoother, Radioblaster, Len, and Hip Club Groove was one. I also had the good fortune of seeing this show with Brendan and Ian, who took a Greyhound in from Peterborough to see it with me. When thinking about our respective travel times it took to get to the show, I'm pretty sure that Peterborough and North York were roughly equal distances from Lee's Palace. It certainly felt that way.

Oh, and it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. The show rocked.