Concert Review -11th Annual Indie Music Awards- Royal York Hotel, Toronto

Janelle Monae interacts with the audience at the Independent Music Awards

The 11th Annual Independent Music Awards took place at Toronto's Royal York Hotel on Saturday evening.  The award show and concert took place as part of Canadian Music Week, and featured performances from some great "up-and-comers" on the scene.  And with Arcade Fire's big Grammy win this year, it seems like a huge groundswell of attention will continue to be focused on independent music in general.

First of all, I had no idea that Toronto's Royal York Hotel had a concert stage!  Such a beautiful set-up in there ... one the best sounding rooms I've been in.  Great sightlines throughout the venue.  It's like a much cleaner version of the Sound Academy.  The classy atmosphere was maintained by the well-behaved, eclectic crowd in attendance.

I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of Britain's Bombay Bicycle Club.  This very young four-piece showed a stage presence well beyond their years.  Kinda had a "Foals meets Broken Social Scene meets Interpol" sound to them.  There's room for growth but I think they're well on their way.

Shad kicked off his performance with a sick freestyle over Kanye's "Devil in a New Dress".  Throughout his set, he spat rhymes over live instruments, jammed on acoustic guitar on his classic track "Rock To It", plus enhanced previous tracks with new verses.   His down-to-earth personality shined throughout the performance, and there's no questioning his rhyming skills. The kid has such a bright future ahead of him ... he's a trailblazer of the current Canadian Hip Hop scene ... mad props.

The event was closed out with a barn-burning set by Janelle Monae.  I'd been waiting to see her perform for quite some time, and judging by the ambitious, genre-bending nature of her 2010 release The Archandroid, I knew I was in store for something truly special ... and I was not disappointed.

After a spectacular video-screen introduction that channeled Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Monae exploded onto the stage with reckless abandon, and displayed the showmanship and charisma of legendary performers such as James Brown, Michael Jackson, and Freddie Mercury.  Her band matched her energy every step of the way, and proved there is absolutely no excuse for on-stage laziness!  It was like watching Prince & The Revolution at the peak of their powers.

As a live performer, Monae proved that she's an unstoppable force to be reckoned with.  Be very aware.

-Turnbull