Tokyo takes on Gonqfest

By Steve McGill

mcgi0087@algonquincollege.com

The Algonquin frosh week was capped off this year by an excellent performance from indie favourites Tokyo Police Club to a less than capacity crowd of eager students and fans.

Returning to the college after their show at the Observatory in January, the band took this opportunity to bring along their entire stage set-up, as they performed in a tent in the C-building courtyard.

Lit by moody red and blue lighting and with intense backlight the band performed a set filled with largely new material, occasionally reaching back to their first EP for select tracks, like the extremely popular Nature of The Experiment.

"It's pretty impressive that they got Tokyo Police Club to play our frosh. It was definitely the highlight of orientation week for me," said Laura Osman, 19, a first-year student.

Opening up this year’s Gonqfest was Montreal electrorockers Beast, the lead singer some might recognize from her collaborations with DJ Champion.

The second band to perform was Newmarket group Ruby Coast, who were an odd addition to the lineup as they sounded almost identical to Tokyo Police Club. However they did a fairly good job in getting the crowd revved up for the main event.

Toyko Police Club performed very well, with frontman Dave Monks seeming in far better spirits than he was at their last show.

"This is our second time here this year—would have been our third but we got caught in a snow storm the first time," joked Monks between songs.

Unfortunately because of the less-than-mainstream appeal of the headliners the crowd was not as large as could be hoped for, with only 600 people showing up for the free event.

Those who came out, however, were definitely pleased.

"Tokyo Police Club definitely made a killer show for the Algonquin students," said Ming Wu, 28, an Algonquin grad.