| Onca Ray and the Green Tambourine had a great night at 97 Bistro, a recently-opened eatery at 97 Danforth Avenue, just east of Broadview Ave. in Toronto. The very attractive and artsy- looking restaurant/club has a comfortable outdoor patio and beautiful d�cor inside. The owner, Jos�, sees to it that all the patrons feel comfortable there and enjoy themselves. This courtesy is also extended to the bands that play there. Local Blues great Julian Fauth played there to a sizeable audience the day before Onca Ray and is going to be there every Friday in September along with harp player Ken Yoshioka. Ruth Taylor, founder of Onca Ray and the Green Tambourine, was ecstatic about playing there that night. The audience, although small (due to the long holiday weekend), really liked the band. Some people stayed and watched the band from the beautiful outdoor patio, as well as beyond that, echoing applause from the sidewalk as the original Onca Ray/Ruth Taylor tunes finished up. One old guy (who looked like actor Clifton Webb) spent most of the evening at 97 Bistro on the outside looking in and applauded loudly after every tune. At the end of this enjoyable evening he even asked Ruth to autograph the colorful Onca Ray cartoon poster advertising the gig, which all night caught the eye of passersby, as it was posted on a sandwich board outside the restaurant/ club. Onca Ray ran the gamut of their explosive original Taylor compositions, helping to make this eastern part of Danforth Ave. a vibrant musical hub all night long. Familiar Onca Ray tunes like "Superficial", "Plastic People" and the very atmospheric "Cloudwalker" were balanced out by some highly enjoyable new tunes like very mid-'60s America "Bell-bottoms and Belly Buttons", a light-hearted and very well done attempt to capture the �60s era of fun, bell-bottoms and good-looking Carnaby Street girls. Ruth herself looked like a re-creation of '60s sitcom fave Barbara Eden (Jeannie from �I Dream of Jeannie�). Onca Ray guitarist JJ White played some scorching guitar licks with picks, slides. etc. Harp player Michael Titherington added some atmosphere on "Cloudwalker" and recreated the audio effect of a real organ on some tunes - mystifying to say the least! Ruth's vocals were consistently powerful and enjoyable to listen to all night long. Her expressive facial expressions when singing and playing guitar spoke volumes about her devotion to her craft and her original compositions. Greg Ray was travelling light tonight, bringing only a conga drum and some drum sticks, which added some excellent percussion to the proceedings. His background vocals, coupled with JJ's, really provided some excellent Brit/Pop harmonies to accentuate Ruth's already superb lead vocals and guitar. Michael's tambourine input at times enhanced every song he shook that thang to! All in all, it was a very enjoyable night, ending in an after-gig drink at Grossman's with the band and friendly 97 Bistro host Jos�, who joined Ruth et al. and me at the Blues landmark at Cecil and Spadina for last call. We all had an excellent time, thanks to good vibes, good friends and great music! Contact Ruth Taylor and her band at [email protected]. More info can be viewed at http://www.solarlink.com/~oncaray/index.html. |
| Onca Ray and the Green Tambourine at 97 Bistro (Friday, August 2/02) By Joe Curtis |
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