CMW 2015: 1977 @ Cherry Cola's

TUESDAY — Tuesday night. The early 8 o'clock set, with the sun still shining in the sky of a warm spring day. It wasn't exactly the most promising time slot that Canadian Music Week has to offer. And just as you'd expect, Cherry Cola's Rock N' Rolla Cabaret was mostly empty when the Juno-nominated Toronto indie-poppers in 1977 took the stage. There were only about a dozen people scattered along the edges of the room.

But the band made the most of it anyway. 1977 play the kind of gentle, catchy, pop tunes that sound best in an intimate setting — something that might remind you a little of a stripped down Belle & Sebastian. The Star's Ben Rayner once called the group's debut "a beguiling collection of organ-driven lo-fi pop ditties." (You can stream it and their more recent EP below.) And that seems about right. As frontwoman Julie Kendall switched from keys to guitar and then back again, ears in the room were clearly perking up. A Tuesday night set might not have provided them with too many fans to win over, but the ones they could, they did.



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Read all our coverage of CMW 2015 here.

Words and photos by Adam Bunch, Editor-in-Chief of the Little Red Umbrella and the creator of the Toronto Dreams Project and Toronto Historical Jukebox. You can read his posts here, follow him on Twitter here, or email him at adam@littleredumbrella.com.