This article was originally published on beingtheremag.com, an independent music and film magazine that ran from 2004 to 2007. It is presented here as part of the Being There Magazine archive.

The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

December 22th, 2004

By Adam Anklewicz | Being There Magazine, February 2005

Zunior.com is a label founded by former Inbreds drummer, Dave Ulrich.  Ulrich had an idea for a better way to sell music. Make it cheap, make it easily accessible, and make all the money (less a PayPal fee) go to the artists.

Zunior.com’s songs are 88¢ Canadian each and the files have no copy protection to limit how you listen; they trust you, so don’t steal their music. The label has a large catalogue of music featuring many exclusive albums, including Mike O’Neill’s new album The Owl. The show was a chance to expose the smaller bands on the label to a larger audience and sell physical CDs.

Starting off the show was The Mountainside Band, featuring Dave Clark (guitar), Josh Finlayson (bass), Richard Gregory (guitar) and Blake Howard (drums). The Mountainside Band was full of energy and would have put on a great show if the songs had been good. You can tell that the crowd isn’t into a band when two people scream “woo” when the band says, “This is a song about getting high.” There were a couple of highlights including a song called “Long Ride Home,” which was fun. The best that can be said about this performance is that they are fun to watch.

The Kelele Brothers, a side project of Ron Sexsmith’s touring band, took the stage a bit earlier than planned.  Sexsmith was supposed to be playing a few doors down at the Rivoli but was convinced to do both shows.  Playing all acoustic, my first thought after a few bars was “holy shit this is good.” The Kelele Brothers played a handful of covers, including The Who’s “Blue, Red & Grey” and Charlie Rich’s “Philadelphia Baby” as well as a few originals. The vocals and musical skills were astounding.

The Scribbled Out Man is Paul Linklater (guitar) and Don Kerr (drums) who played as a duo for this performance that they called a “musical tribute to The Inbreds,” who were a bass and drum duo. Linklater was running around the stage seeming to have the time of his life, and his energy spread through the audience. Linklater has a stage presence and attitude reminiscent of Ben Gunning of the Local Rabbits.  All the songs were great and a lot of fun. His musicianship was not up to the standards of the previous bands, but the songs were excellent and they put on a terrific show.

Dinner Is Ruined was the low point of the evening. They were off-key and sounded like a group of twelve-year-olds singing into a cassette recorder. Screaming into the mic and playing sloppy guitar was Dale Morningstar while Dave Clark provided solid drum work and Dr. Pee did a great job playing bass. I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be funny or not, but it seemed the rest of the audience was unsure as well.

The headliner was Mike O’Neill, who was once the bass player in The Inbreds. In 1999, O’Neill released his first solo album called What Happens Now? Now, five years later, O’Neill has his follow up album The Owl on Zunior.com. Playing mostly songs from the new album, the band was in top form with only a few minor goofs. O’Neill knows how to entertain the audience; he’s a storyteller, and even when his stories don’t go anywhere, he can keep the audience entertained between songs. Playing a set with a lot of slow poppy songs to start, O’Neill slowly merged into more energetic songs like “We Live Happily,” during which he led the audience into a sing-a-long of a great new song rivalling any of his older material. Closing the set was “Alsatian,” the opening track from his first solo album. “Alsatian” is the perfect rock song to leave a crowd on a high. Unfortunately when the tempo dropped, O’Neill didn’t join the rest of the band fast enough. The encore was a bit of a let down. Seeing as this was a Christmas event O’Neill felt he should perform “What A Wonderful World,” a song he thought of as a Christmas song. Louis Armstrong’s deep timbre is forever associated with the song and O’Neill’s high voice was just a reminder how different it is from the classic performance engraved in the public consciousness. The only other disappointment was that with Dave Ulrich in the room, to not do an Inbreds reunion is a sin. Not only did Ulrich not join O’Neill on stage, O’Neill did not play any Inbreds songs.

Overall a great show, the $6 cover could have been upped to $16 and no one would’ve complained.