Toronto Women in Music Showcase: For Esmé, Etiquette, REPARTEE & Hush Pup!

On a wintery spring night in April, a crowd of music fans came together at Adelaide Hall in Toronto to celebrate great music, dance, and generally just enjoy the hell out of a Thursday night.

The Toronto Women in Music showcase brought Hush Pup, REPARTEE, For Esmé, and Etiquette to the stage to show us all what they’ve got – and one at a time, they did exactly that… with pleasure.

Over and over we heard from the women leading the 4 bands talk about how awesome Toronto Women in Music (TWIM) has been for them. And looking through Facebook posts from those same artists, it’s clear to see that they love having a group of talented, supportive, badass women to collaborate with, and call friends. It’s a really cool thing to see and know is happening in a great city like ours. We really hope that women in other cities are getting the same opportunity.

First up on the Adelaide Hall stage Thursday night was Hush Pup, a synthy/groove/pop act that did an excellent job of warming up the crowd as they came through the doors and took their coats off. The combination of Ida’s soft, sweet vocals + keys, guitar, and bass gave us a sound that we’d gladly come in to listen to again. High fives to Ida, Fizzy, and Torrie for a job well done!

2nd on stage, and ready to dance, was REPARTEE – a 4 piece outfit fronted by Meg Warren – originally from St. John’s, Newfoundland.

These 4 really did come to have a good time, kicking things off by telling the assembled music lovers that they were “gonna play some dance tunes” for us. And did they ever. With a super fun energy, REPARTEE gave us everything we could have hoped for… they’re the kind of band, playing the kind of music, that you’d be 100% hearing sometime between 12am and whenever you were too tired to stop dancing. In fact, you should probably look at their massive list of 2016 All Lit Up Tour dates so you can see for yourself… and check out the All Lit Up album on April 29th.

Thursday night’s headliner was Etiquette, another full sound, 4 piece (with bonus vocals from Hannah Georgas) bringing their brand of Dreamy Synth to the stage and entertaining the Toronto crowd. Lead singer Julie Fader owned the microphone, and her keyboard, as the band moved through their music. They’ll be back at Adelaide Hall on April 22 with Casper Skulls and Suuns… you might want to think about checking that out!

Then there’s the reason we hit the show… the 3rd act on stage, and one of our Canadian pop favourites, For Esmé!

Led by the talented and lovely Martha Merideth, and freshly back from 3 shows at SXSW (where we hear they were a big hit, and Nathan told us they had an awesome time hanging with a heap of Canadians + the teams from Facebook and Spotify… plus other shenanigans) For Esmé did what they do, and owned the stage.

Just like REPARTEE before them, Martha invited the crowd to dance with her as she sang and moved. The crowd loved it… showing their appreciation with cheers and bouncing heads and shuffling feet. And when the trio played Make A Sound (which has a wicked video, click to check it out) we were all – all of us – in on the action with the band.

For Esmé will be back on stage in Toronto again as the city celebrates Canadian Music Week… check out The Silver Dollar on Saturday, May 7 at 11pm to check them out in person!

Much love to Toronto Women in Music for putting on a great show with 4 talented and engaging acts…we can’t wait for the next show.

Check out more pics from the night… and stay tuned for more awesome music coming soon.

Photos from Toronto Women in Music at Adelaide Hall

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