KULAS : TORONTO HORSESHOE TAVERN 19.3.02

Setlist: Starland, Anyone Else, Pavement, The Only One, Beginning of the End, Burning Down Hollywood, Lust for Love, Glasgow Rain

"Hello are you there? 'Cause we are here" Kulas queried Toronto's packed Queen Street

West Horseshoe Tavern moments before kicking off a short eight-song set with his great yet to be recorded Ziggy Stardust-esque rocker "Starland".  Tonight, Kulas and his four piece backing band were the centre-piece act on CFNY radio's Howard Bookman Nu Music night, who he later thanked for the invitation on-stage mid-set.

This evening's Kulas setlist was a pared down version of the two earlier Toronto shows delivered over the past few weeks at the almost next-door Rivoli Club and the Rancho Relaxo.  Songs played tonight included Anyone Else and The Only One (both potential singles to my ear) from his latest cd "Another Small Machine", older single Burning Down Hollywood and new unrecorded songs such as Pavement.  Despite  playing with lots of passion and effort, as well as having the inspirational presence of a tv cameraman grabbing bits of opening songs Starland and Anyone Else, things just didn't seem to get into gear tonight.  Whereas at last week's full set at the Rivoli the pieces just seemed to fall into place right away, tonight it wasn't until two-thirds through the night during ASM's Beginning of the End that momentarily everything came together.  Perhaps this is just the other side of the coin after you play a really great set like last week's Rancho Relaxo show - you leave your audience expecting that you will always deliver such a good performance. So what to the uninitiated is a decent show, like tonight's Horseshoe performance, leaves the experienced fan's expectations unmet.  And, we had plenty of indications tonight that the really great performance was not a once -off event, but will be delivered again, if not now then the next time. 

Case in point was the last portion of Kulas' show tonight.  After a frenzied delivery of planned set closer Lust For Love, a great guitar driven cover of an early-80's Canadian synth-pop hit, Kulas and band found they had time to squeeze in another song.  Things got off to a shaky start in the quiet opening section of new unrecorded favourite Glasgow Rain, with both guitars being retuned on the fly.  However, by the time the full band came in for the final, thundering section of this powerful emotion-fraught piece, everything was in place and the set was brought to a powerful, satisfying close.  My reaction (and delayed reply to Michael's question at the beginning of the set) was "yeah I'm here and thats what and why I came for", guaranteeing that I would be back again for more.