It's time for our admittedly belated review of Saturday night's
Handsome Sandwich CD release party at
The Loft at
the Algoma Conservatory of Music! This is the first concert of a remotely heavy persuasion that I know took place at The Loft, so what is it like to attend a show there? First off, the Conservatory is located in the old St. Mary's Paper office building at the end of Huron Street right by St. Mary's River, right beside The Mill Steakhouse. The Loft is on the third (and top) floor of the Conservatory, and being inside the building honestly reminded me of being at the courthouse downtown, especially the stairs. Yes, there is an escalator too, something I didn't know about until when I left the show. As a concert venue, The Loft is
very nice with good acoustics, a unique layout, and neat sightlines, especially with the slanted roof and industrial beams. Pictures make the space look bigger than it is and obscure the layout a bit.
While photos on The Loft's website show thick seating, these are movable & were pushed against three walls to varying thicknesses to allow for a proper floor section. Rooms are adjacent to The Loft for the connected recording studio, and the bar section for anyone wanting a potent potable was well in view from the main door. Yes, HD video cameras were rolling, seemingly for both bands, and I did notice a camera slowly panning left to right beside the drumkit on the stage, though what we'll see and when, I don't know. My biggest issue with The Loft was the lack of air conditioning, and if that's not practical, at least turn the fans up! Regardless, it's a very nice space for concerts, and I hope more local bands take advantage of it!
The openers were local alternative/indie rock quartet
Man Feelings, who were lucky enough to get an hour long set, which is impressive for a support band! As such, they played a lot of unreleased songs, plus material from their "City Friends" EP like "Modest Spouse" and "Long Winter's Night". I don't believe that I've seen Man Feelings live before, and when listening to them, comparisons to The Black Keys came up often, if that band had more instruments and variety to their sound. While bassist Tyler Willson handled most lead vocals, all of his bandmates got turns to sing, which is encouraging from an original band in terms of giving everyone an identity. Not a heavy band, but they have good songwriting, and everyone made the most of their instrumental roles, with B.J. Swire's keyboard work adding an extra element throughout, and Paul "Gabby"
Gabrylewicz had some strong guitar melodies!I will say that Man Feelings were slow to engage the crowd at first, and they had a few too many songs that just... ended, without a big finish. Not really abrupt endings so much as anti-climactic ones. Still a solid set that helped set the tone for the handsomeness to follow, and of course, how fitting is it that Man Feelings opened for Handsome Sandwich, thereby swapping roles from Man Feelings' CD release show last year? Also, shout-out to Ricky the juggler, who even got to "perform" for a song!
Overall, this was a fun show aided by the unique and high-end locale, and on a kinda-related level, it was awesome to see Mitch & Johnny
finally get to have a proper release concert like this after their old death metal band
The Bear Hunters' planned release show for their higher quality second album
"The Dead Testament" never went through due to the pandemic and the band's own decline in activity after 2017, leading to it getting a digital-only release on Bandcamp in 2020, and only one further live set. 2+ years later, they finally had their big moment, and hopefully Nik and Justin get theirs in some form! You can check out our photos from the show at
this link or at
our Facebook page, and I shot a video from each band, namely Man Feelings playing "Bring Me Home" and Handsome Sandwich playing "Better Off"!
Due to the length of this review (which went longer than normal already), I'll hold comment on Handsome Sandwich's newly released "Deconstructed" album for an upcoming post, but I did buy a CD copy on Saturday night and it will be reviewed on the SMS in due course! That's all for now, but a new news post will be hitting the SMS later today! Thanks everyone!
