On Saturday night at Lee's Palace in Toronto one of the biggest shows of the year went down.

A who's who of Queen Street bands graced the stage in an event called The Last Schmaltz: The Bicycles CD Release party. I noticed that lead singer of the Bicycles, Matt Beckett was on Facebook this morning so I thought I would strike up a chat and ask him about the night.      

1:19pm Chris
How was the show?
1:21pm Matt
the show was amazing, better than we could have ever imagined. it's one of those things where nothing went wrong.
1:21pm Chris
what were the highlights for you?
1:22pm Matt
we played 10lbs with matt murphy, which was kind of a teen dream for all of us. i played the tambourine so hard! the crowd went bananas at the opening riff, it was so unexpected.
1:24pm Chris
what was the structure of the night?
1:25pm Matt
our new best friends young rival opened the show - it was officially a co-cd release party.

then we played a few of our songs, and would switch between our tunes and guests. there was also a horn section, violins, percussionists, and a second drum kit.
1:26pm Chris
so who else got on stage with you?
1:27pm Matt
we played songs by 100$, sebastian grainger, laura barrett, hooded fang, green go (a dance band from guelph - the song kicked butt), old soul
forest city lovers... there's so many. jay ferguson and chris murphy also came and we did an unadvertised version of 'i hate my generation'. sandro perri, brent randall...
1:28pm Chris
wow! I read something about an over the top mosh pit...?
1:28pm Matt
yeah, as a break our friend maylee did a 'workout performance', and one of her workout crew apparently bodysurfed from the stage to the bar.
i didn't see it, though - i was hydrating in the back.
1:30pm Chris
anything else you'd like to mention?
1:32pm Matt
that we're the luckiest band in the world. and a real unexpected surprise was that the place was packed. i was terrified that no one showed up.
so from the guests musicians, the soundguy to the audience, it's like the whole night was a group effort.
1:33pm Chris
You deserve everything that happened. You guys are great... I'm going to post this conversation, cool?
1:33pm Matt
of course!
1:33pm Chris

Great!

Photo © 2008 Adam M. Anklewicz.
posted by Chris Kelly on Nov 10, 2008