MEDALLIONS at Rancho Relaxo (300 College), Thursday (June 12), 10 pm. $12, free w/ NXNE wristband (see page 62). 416-920-0366. Rating: NNNNN
When controller.controller disbanded two years ago, bassist Scott Kaija felt the mixed emotions that come with a relationship’s demise. He says he felt relieved not to be confined in a van 15 hours a day, but also sad not to have the creative release that comes from playing live.
“I found myself missing it. I didn’t play for over a year and a half,” he says. “It’s never easy when you’ve spent that much time with people. It was disappointing, but we had a great time.”
After being nomadic for years, Kaija rented a room on Shaw and turned his crib into a makeshift studio where he began tinkering with ideas left over from his controller days. The new-?wave, jagged rock sounds emitted from his bedroom eventually roused his housemates, who happened to be players in a band called Frontier Index. And before you could say “impending noise complaint,” Medallions was formed.
Kaija admits he never expected to be in this position again, facing the uphill climb that comes with launching a new band. But if their first show was any indication, it could be a smooth ascent.
“When I stepped onstage and from the moment we started to play, I was thinking, ‘Oh my god, why did it take me a year and a half to do this?’”
