DEATH TO T.O. 3 with THE HIGHEST ORDER, ELL V GORE, TEENANGER, DIGITS and more at the Silver Dollar, Thursday, October 31. Rating: NNNN
The Dan Burke- and Elliot Jones-presented Death To T.O. covers show has become a Toronto Halloween tradition, and Thursday night’s third edition was bigger and better than ever.
Transforming the Silver Dollar and Comfort Zone into a two-storied funhouse complete with seasonal decorations, the event featured a laundry list of the city’s best (mostly rock and punk-minded) acts dressing up and covering artists including David Bowie, Devo, Hole, Oasis, Pixies, Pulp and more.
Despite both venues being packed with dressed-to-the-nines party-goers (everyone from Fred Durst to Uma Thurman’s Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction to Olive Oyl), things ran smoothly as the bands alternated between rooms.
Picking a highlight was near impossible when there was something for everybody’s tastes, but synth-pop artist Digits’s Kraftwerk set was particularly faithful to the pioneering German electronic band, right down to the red-shirt-and-black-tie outfits seen on the cover of their 1978 album The Man-Machine (witnessing a grown man wearing a Kermit the Frog costume nod his head to Trans-Europe Express was an added bonus).
Thankfully no one attempted the late Lou Reed’s songbook, but Teenanger paid fitting tribute to the other kings of New York cool, the Ramones, with a set that included Judy Is A Punk and Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World. Not one to miss out on the fun, man of the hour Jones (also the frontman for Ell V Gore) lead his band through an appropriately rambunctious 20 minutes of Danzig/Misfits tunes, culminating in a fist-pumping Where Eagles Dare singalong.
Sure, it was a covers show, but the night was yet another testament to Toronto’s scarily good music community.
