A cover story in Eye Weekly about the Wavelength 450 ninth-anniversary fest (Feb. 12-15) announces the end of Wavelength’s weekly series a year ahead of time. Though it’s stated that the series will continue in a month format, there are cries of “say it ain’t so” from the community. WL450 continues the exploration of new spaces, such as über-hip Wrongbar in Parkdale and community space the Polish Combatants Hall, a.k.a. SPK, with a stacked lineup including Timber Timbre, Slim Twig, Bonjay, Hooded Fang, and The Luyas, and packed houses all weekend. It doesn’t hurt that the long-standing Valentine’s Day timing of the Winter Fest coincides with a brand-new Ontario public holiday, Family Day — making it an official long weekend.
2009’s Special Events sees Wavelength taking things outside: the Summer Courtyard Series, co-presented at the Music Gallery, includes US noise-rockers Magik Markers (June 27). After the previous year’s rain-out, the first ALL CAPS! Island Show sees the all-ages fest moving to Artscape Gibraltar Point, the arts centre on bucolic Toronto Island, providing an intriguing indoor/outdoor location. The one-day event — originally scheduled for August but pushed back to Oct. 17 by the municipal workers’ strike — attracts a small yet enthusiastic crowd.
The summer ends with an exciting international exchange: Wavelength helps facilitate a Canadian tour for Ethiopian saxophone legend Getatchew Mekuria and his collaboration with Dutch avant-punks the Ex. These two nights (Sept. 12-13 @ SPK) end up on many attendees’ best-shows-of-all-time list.
That fall, Shaun Bowring leaves Sneaky Dee’s as booker and opens a new club on Dundas West at Ossington, named the Garrison. Though the up-and-coming Little Portugal strip is still a bit quiet on Sunday nights, Wavelength follows Shaun and relocates our weekly series there for the last four months of its run — marking the end of seven years of Sundays at Sneaky Dee’s.
Memorable shows:
- Anthemic Vancouver pop-punk duo Japandroids, before becoming arena-rock heroes (WL 454, March 15 @ SD)
- One of the highlights of our annual Images Festival collaborations, California audiovisual sci-fi musical Cloud Eye Control (April 11 @ Theatre Centre)
- METZ herald the new wave of Toronto noise-rock (WL 462, May 10 @ SD)
- One stacked art-pop lineup: Katie Stelmanis, Braids and Diamond Rings (WL 463, May 17 @ SD)
- Joe Lally, bassist from Fugazi, makes a Toronto tour stop (WL 466, June 7 @ SD)
- Avant-garde icon Sook-Yin Lee plays one of the first WL shows at the Garrison (Oct. 18)
- The Strumbellas, years before hitting alt-country platinum with “Spirits” (WL 493, Dec. 13 @ the Garrison