CMW Critical Conclusions for…For Esmé (Canadian Music Week 2014 concert review)

The last act of the night at the Gladstone, and for CMW 2014, was Toronto’s For Esmé.

For Esmé at The Gladstone Hotel – CMW 2014 (Copyright: PeteHatesMusic / Martin Bazyl Photography)

Venue: The Gladstone Hotel

First Impressions: If the band was dressed to look like they want to be in Game of Thrones, they succeeded. And hey, no percussionist!

Stage Presence: The singer Martha Meredith moved around a bit, while the others bobbed a little to their music. However, the combination of the slick images on the screen behind the band, mixed with the outfit of Martha seemed to captivate the audience.

For Esmé at The Gladstone Hotel – CMW 2014 (Copyright: PeteHatesMusic / Martin Bazyl Photography)

Crowd Reaction: You could hear a pin drop, which didn’t happen during the previous act LYON. That being said, the crowd were pretty static during the songs. And then they started talking again around the third song.

Random Observation: The drunk girl behind me dropped her phone 3 times. Hopefully she wasn’t live blogging.

The Last Word: 7.0/10. The tracks had interesting and unique vocals and song structure, but no real stand out moments. There are components of good songs, but maybe it was lost with the eventual chatty crowd. Or maybe I was waiting for a percussionist to supplement the tracks and give it the drive and rhythm I felt a few tracks needed. The energy from the last song was definitely something I felt was missing throughout, but it was a great way to close out the set.

For more photos of the show, and of the entire night at the Gladstone, check out our Facebook album of Day 5.

For Esmé at The Gladstone Hotel – CMW 2014 (Copyright: PeteHatesMusic / Martin Bazyl Photography)

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