MONOWHALES AT HORSESHOE TAVERN IN TORONTO

My first thought coming into the late night show of Toronto’s own Monowhales was, what would a monowhale look like? Does it refer to just one whale? Is it a cyclops whale? Is it a lonely whale without a mate? Who knows. The band currently has one EP from 2018, Control Freak, and a few singles under their belt, so they’re a fairly new act. For being so new, I had definitely heard a couple of their songs on the radio, which is impressive. I had also caught the last few minutes of their set last year opening for Matt & Kim during Canadian Music Week. All I saw was lead singer, Sally Shaar, leap off the stage to crowd surf and I thought, for the two minutes I was there, that was pretty lively. At this show, I was wondering if that liveliness would happen again.

The black and white checkered floor of the tavern was decently full. The four piece band arrived on stage, lit up by many colours. In the clothing department, they were inspired by the 80s, but remained mostly in black. A little shy to start, the band banged in with pop-rock dance beats. Loud synths provided by keyboardist, Holly Jamieson, were a driving force even over the lead guitar and drumming. The audience was enjoying the act, a few jumping people around. Sally wanted to hype them up a bit more with funny banter with guitarist Zach Zanardo. 

“Let’s make it hot!”

“YEAH!”

“Like flaming Cheetoes hot!”

“YEAH!”

“Or more like Taki’s hot!” 

The song that was performed after the banter really had some rock n’ roll vibes with a raging guitar solo from Zach. Sally growled, yelped, and whipped her hair around like a rock star. “Real Love” was then after and that was a highlight. It had a seductive, needing mood that you could identify with; the feeling when you’re lusting after someone. The synths and beats on that track are just plain cool. The audience were then really grooving and hopping along. They provided a decently fun time for their relatively short one hour set.

This baby of a band is on the right path to their niche, and only need a little bit more fine tuning to really break through. They said they have been on a cross country tour and wrote new songs in British Columbia, so we hope to hear those tunes in the future.