Concert Review: Steam Whistle Unsigned #24: Synths, Guitars, Laptops And Beer

By: Chris D’Alessandro –

Alt Altman of Digits at Steam Whistle Brewery in Toronto. November 16th, 2012. (Photo: Chris D’Alessandro)

Nothing goes better together than beer and music.

Friday, November 16^th marked the 24^th time that Steam Whistle Brewery has brought this match made in heaven into a reality.

Best of all, the entire night’s proceeds go to benefit the Artist’s Health Centre Foundation, whose mission it is to promote the health and wellbeing of all professional and emerging performing and creative artists.

Opening the show was Beta Frontiers, which isn’t so much a musical act as it was a complete audio/visual experience.

Beta Frontiers are minimalists when it come to performing live. It’s just two guys standing at a table in front of laptops and the sounds that reverberated through the brewery were instep with the currently emerging electro-dubstep scene.  Playing from their latest EP, simply named EP, the duo used low-fi Nintendo-worthy synth riffs with drums that were born for the dancefloor. Sure, that might be something most people are used to in a club setting, but it certainly felt out of character in Steam Whistle. But here’s the hook: every single mix from Beta Frontiers was accompanied by a video playing in the background including footage of what appeared to be old Japanese game shows, anime cartoons and sports car commercials. A Beta Frontiers set is really more of an experience than a concert.

Beta Frontiers at Steam Whistle Brewery in Toronto. November 16th, 2012. (Photo: Chris D’Alessandro)

Babe, on the other hand, felt more like a return to what is usually expected at Steam Whistle’s Unsigned series.

Having just released their debut self-titled album, Babe took the post-rock of Interpol, the indie rock sensibilites of The Rapture, along with elements of trip-hop, hip-hop and soulful vocal stylings of decades-old R&B and morphed them all into a heart-pounding love affair with their music.

The guitars and synths were energetic and contemporary, the drumming was super tight and the bass absolutely ripped.  Mix in some grungy vocals and it made for a really exciting noise.

Babe at Steam Whistle Brewery in Toronto. November 16th, 2012. (Photo: Chris D’Alessandro)

Maybe the most progressive performance of the night was Digits.

Digits is comprised of one guy, which makes it unclear if “Digits” is an intentional misnomer.

Alt Altman is Digits and resides both here and Berlin. Using only two synthesizers, a laptop, and a looping pedal to reproduce songs live, he went about singing his guts out on tracks that took from his new album “In The City of the Dead,” which serves as a concept album where J, a journalist, watches as fascism begins to creep over the city.

Digits had a very European sound, so it’s surprising to see that Altman has been blowing up overseas in London and Berlin. He almost sounded like Goyte if only he used more synths. A lot more.

Between video shows, genre mash-ups and a one-man electronic-show, this was arguable the most exciting Unsigned show to date.