Megan Hamilton, Emeen Z @ the Boat.

Sunday night I missed out on an excellent Wavelength bill to take in Megan Hamilton & the Volunteer Canola and Emeen Z at the Boat. I've never seen Megan & band before, but have spent some time with her two albums. I like them, though they require more concentration than I usually like to give to music. Yeah, it's true: I don't spend much time actually listening to music unless I'm at a show.

Back to the point. (I'm distracted today.)

Emeen Z is out of Boston at the moment and he brought his band to Toronto this past weekend for a few shows at the best spots for indie pop-rock, as well as played a solo set at the Tranzac's front room, the best spot Toronto has for that kind of thing. I'd seen a couple of their songs Saturday night, but was outside talking to Flotilla so told the Bostonians that'd I for sure pay attention Sunday night. So I did. And I'm glad that I did. Some definitely good indie pop tunes. (I really like indie pop.) Even better, the people at the Boat had just changed around the sound system earlier that day, and things sounded really good in there. There was a noticeable difference between the way the band sounded on Saturday at Rancho Relaxo and how things were Sunday at the Boat. Good for you, Boat crew. I got Emeen Z's three-song EP and already found myself enjoying it. They reminded me a little of the Bicycles at times, but with longer songs.

Megan Hamilton & the Volunteer Canola played last to a small crowd of well-wishers. And, wow, what a good band! They really should be entertaining many more people. (Too bad Wavelength had a not-dissimilar bill last night.) Less pop and more country-folk, but with lots of rock. The band will start recording a new album this week, and took last night as a chance to play all new songs. It felt special, like something I shouldn't really be hearing. This is a group with experience playing shows and it comes across. And I gotta say that I was completely visually entertained by the band: Megan in a cute prairie dress thing with awesome long red curly hair; a tall guitarist rocking out like he's not playing folk-rock on a Sunday night; a good-looking manly keyboard player with cowboy boots, styled hair, and sunglasses on the top of his head; a bassist who looked like he'd just come from the golf course; and the cute skinny drummer with facial hair and thick-rimmed glasses. They all looked and sounded excellent. I loved it. I want to see them again.

Sorry, no photos. I keep forgetting my camera at home.