brendongomez.com

It’s interesting when someone hears you perform at one place, and then invites you for an event at their peers place (based on what they’ve seen and heard). That’s not what happened with Kelsey’s Restaurant, but it kinda did. Basically a peer from a Fionn MacCools location told a peer at a Kelsey’s Restaurant location about myself and they invited me to their location for a ‘one-off’ show (as part of new venture in live music). It was a modern roadhouse, and the staff and patrons gave a number of requests that were as Canadian as Swiss Chalet (Blue Rodeo) and Harvey’s (Barenaked Ladies)…except it was at a Kelsey’s. Off to the next show: Taxi! 

My “Back to Work to Rule School Tour” started September 1^st and finishes Oct. 3rd, just before thanksgiving weekend (pubs, clubs, parties, fairs, all over the GTA). As I’m performing new setlists, and songmashes, I can help but think that if the Toronto Blue Jays keeps on winning, my shows will start later and later (pass the redbull). But that’s okay, cause as they keep winning games, the crowds keep getting more feisty, more aggressive more demanding, and completely more unpredictable with requests (which makes it fun for a guy like me).  To appease the masses, and the new generational gap of boomers – GenXY – Millennials, I have added mashes to everything – meaning – all modern songs from today go back to 1980s music “instrumentally”, but the actual “chords” go back to 1970’s classic rock progressions. What i mean is ‘Taylor Swift’s “Welcome to New York” is musically – The Who’s Baba O’Riely with Depeche Mode as the backup band. I’m seeing it more and more, and my upcoming shows will start adapting the ‘mash’ effect to make this musical link to appease the Millennials and the GenX,Y Boomers. Here’s a sample setlist;

This past summer has been a great ride of grand and smaller grand shows. With the Toronto Pan Am Games, it was a thrill to play a few related ‘sport’s’ parties associated with the events. Some show’s that came to mind was a swim team party at the Madison, a track and field party at Fionn MacCools Burlington, gymnastics crowd at Paupers, and sitting in on a non related Jam session at the Windermere in Muskoka (non-sports related). Apart from HOV lanes, and countless traffic delays (I’m a travelling musician who needs to bring a PA everywhere I go, I can’t swing it on the TTC), it was an amazing summer with bizarre audience requests (i.e. Hey, can you play that Eagle Eye Cherry song, into Cherry Pie, with a side of Shut up and Dance with me). Joking aside, I’d like that everyone who came out to these random shows over the last 3 months, it wouldn’t be the same without you, the locations where so ‘all over the GTA map’