Restorations have had a pretty busy winter as their latest release, LP3 came out back in late October on SideOneDummy Records.
Since then they have been on an almost non-stop touring cycle, with various bands including Cheap Girls, Cayetana and PUP and by the looks of it will be continuing to do so well into the spring/summer.
With all their touring they stopped by in Toronto a couple of weeks ago for a good night of music and drinks with a variety of local openers including Dead Broke, The Dying Arts and Deforesters which unsurprisingly among other things didn't disappoint.
Deforesters kicked off the night with their brand of orgcore punk rock and killed it from start to finish. There was never a dull moment as they played their tracks to the crowd especially when they played "Snow Line", a personal favourite of mine and an awesome song with a catchy chorus bound to attract new fans wherever they play it.
Next up was Dead Broke, which strangely enough I only recently found out about these guys from a friend but they definitely have a talent for stage presence. The front man came out on to the floor a few times during their set to play with the crowd and sing along with some honestly, pretty timid people. Regardless this didn't stop him from jumping around back and forth on stage while the whole band was playing non-stop with full force. Not bad for an independent punk band from Oakville.
Third band into the night was Toronto's The Dying Arts. This band plays pretty regularly at The Horseshoe Tavern from what I've noticed, in fact they opened for Anti-Flag back in February and like that time they were killer for this show too. An interesting blend of punk rock and dreary, ambient sounds that kind of remind you of a slower paced Nine Inch Nails fit for this decade, their songs and image sure reflect on some pretty dystopian stuff but they kept it interesting for the crowd to appreciate it and wanting to hear more songs from their set.
Last but not least came Restorations. What can I say about their set? The band started off with straight from LP3 the track "Misprint", a relatively long song but who cares it rules and was a wicked start to their set which the crowd had been longing to hear. After that they came in with "New Old" and "Most Likely A Spy", the whole set included almost only LP2 and LP3 songs. "Val d'Or" seemed to be the only track they played from their debut self-titled full length released back in 2011 which is not necessarily a bad thing, each song was welcomed with a chorus of applause and appreciation of their presence.
As once previously stated, Restorations is a mix of Punk meets Americana and is a very quirky combo. They seem to mix well with bands that may not necessarily sound like them at all which was the case for this show. You had an orgcore band like Deforesters, then a METZ-sounding band like Dead Broke, a spacey group like The Dying Arts and finally you have Restorations, it must have been a pretty daunting task for the promoter to put together a show like this but hey, it actually worked out pretty well and the crowd seemed to like it.