CMW 2015: Brave Shores @ The Mod Club

FRIDAY – When we think back to this year's Canadian Music Week, the set we'll remember best is this one. And that's despite the fact that we were appropriately drunk by the time the Toronto dance-rockers in Brave Shores took the stage. They headlined the Indie88 showcase at the Mod Club on the festival's Friday night, taking their places under the bright lights an hour before midnight. The club was packed by then — a throng of people crushing forward at the lip of the stage, stretching all the way back to the doors. But even though the band have only been around for a couple of years, as soon as they launched into their set it was clear they were up to the challenge of a slot with such a high profile.

The audience was on their side from the beginning. Brave Shores' barn-burning electro-rocker "Never Come Down" has been getting played on Indie88 since long before their debut album hit the shelves last fall. It seemed like everyone in the room already knew the words — not just to one song, but to most of them — and they didn't hesitate to sing along. The band's own enthusiasm — with constant, broad smiles spread across the faces of front-siblings Stefanie and Jay McCarrol — was infectious. It's not often that a Canadian Music Week set earns an encore. But as the band headed off into the wings at the end of the night, it was obvious one was coming: the audience wasn't going to accept anything less. By the time it was all over — including a final climax that saw the band briefly break into Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" — it was more than clear: Brave Shores have arrived. 

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Read all our coverage of CMW 2015 here.

Words 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.

Photos by Carmen Cheung, the Arts Editor for The Little Red Umbrella.