Line-up

Headliner
Born Ruffians Last time in Toronto: 9 months ago

Venue

Lee's Palace

529 Bloor St W, M5S 1Y5, Toronto, ON, Canada

www.leespalace.com/

Capacity: 600

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Born Ruffians biography

Born Ruffians are a band hailing from Midland, Ontario, Canada who formed in 2002. Since their debut, they have released four studio albums along with two EP's, and become one of the most exciting and intriguing bands on the famously fertile Canadian indie rock scene.

Coming together in 2002 as Mornington Drive, the band spent the next two years writing, rehearsing and making their tentative steps into their local rock scene in Midland, Ontario. However the band didn't truly get started until 2004, when they collectively moved to Toronto and self-released their debut album “The Makeshift Yellow Catastrophe”. The response to that record was so positive that it secured the band a record deal with the hugely respected British electronica label Warp Records, but singer/guitarist Luke Lalonde, drummer Steve Hamelin and bassist Mitch DeRossier still decided it was high time to rethink the band

The band's first release on Warp came in 2006, and saw the band, now renamed Born Ruffians, release the single “This Sentence Will Ruin/Save Your Life”. 2008 saw the release of the album that the band consider to be their true “debut”, “Red, Yellow & Blue”, and ever since then, the band have remained one of the most acclaimed and respected groups of their time. Loved by critics, fans and their peers, they have toured with the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip and Caribou, appeared on the succesful British T.V show Skins and toured the world over, with a large amount of their cult following stemming from their famed live shows. This is a band made up of artists in the truest sense of the word, and for that, they come highly recommended.

Live reviews

Going back a decade now, when you think about the wave of bands that came to characterise that crossover between the indie rock sounds of the time and the post-punk revival that had come just a little earlier, they’ve really had mixed fortunes since; Franz Ferdinand for instance, have been from the Brixton Academies of the world to festival headlining and arenas, and then back again, whilst the likes of The Hidden Cameras and Tokyo Police Club have continued to fly under the radar since. Born Ruffians, from Ontario, Canada, have followed the latter path - they were Mornington Drive, back then - and continue to make new records. Their most recent, Birthmarks, was released last year, and met with a solid critical reception; they went on to tour it extensively - for a description of their live show, imagine the slick nature of Vampire Weekend’s gigs, but with a little more aggression, a little rougher in sonic terms. A run of UK shows in September of last year confirmed that their fanbase in this country remains alive and well, and it’ll be interesting to see how they fare next; they’ve managed to navigate the changing scene better than many of their contemporaries of a decade ago have.

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