Cat Empire rocks the Danforth

Cat Empire is comprised of six incredibly talented musicians who have the ability to put on a larger than life live performance filled with melodic solos and big instrumentals. They performed in Toronto most recently at The Danforth Music Hall on Wednesday, July 27. Cat Empire has a notorious reputation internationally for being a hard band to follow. Their European agent states on the band’s webpage that, “They are an impossible act to follow.  The reason they close most festival stages is because other bands are afraid to go on after them.” Right now Cat Empire is in the middle of their Canadian tour to promote their newest album, Rising With The Sun, with future stops in Vancouver, Regina and finishing up with a couple of towns in Quebec.

At first I arrived pretty early, like at 7pm early. I guess I had a blond moment or I don’t get out much: it never occurred to me that they weren’t starting right away. Luckily, I live ten minutes away so I just returned home for some “tea time” and wine. One of the first things that I noticed was the colorful set up of the stage. It really enhanced the positive vibes of the show and the light show was dynamic in a complementary way.

One of Cat Empire’s biggest strengths is that they really know how to energize their crowd. Their vocalist Felix Riebl, had the right amount of energy. You can tell he’s a smooth talker, especially with their more soulful songs. One guy even took out his lighter and held it up for sometime- old school style, while everyone else had their cellphones out and held them up – millennial style. There were people dancing like no one was watching on the outskirts, a little bit of moshing and couples making out sporadically throughout the crowd to the slower jams.

Instrumental solos stole the night away. Throughout the show there was a lot of big saxophone riffs lead by Harry Angus, a piano solo that was amazingly psychedelic with Ollie McGill and Will Hull-Brown had an impressive drum solo. Out of all of these solos, my favourite one of the night was a killer vinyl scratch session from Jamshid “Jumps” Khadiwhala which segwayed into a large instrumental set that was given a pretty huge standing ovation afterwards. Probably the biggest one of the night. I had another blond moment and recorded that portion of the set without the sound (see: #smh #disappointed). All of these solos and sets really showed off how multi talented everyone in the band really is. The energy for the whole night was off the wall.

I have to be honest, I kinda didn’t really know about them before picking up the reviewing assignment, but left that night a fan and will be looking for them the next time they come around. Upon reflection, I was surprised they weren’t performing in a bigger venue. Who knows, maybe next year they will.

Thanks to Strut Entertainment and Live Nation Ontario !