Grimelda performs at Bovine Sex Club in Toronto (photos)

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“What the hell was THAT?” someone shouted from the crowd at Sex club for cattle immediately after the last note of the set was played and was an accurate assessment of what had just been experienced.

Punk/alternative pop/rock duo Moosejaw Grimelda came to town for the second night of the From north to northeast Music festival in Toronto. The small Bovine Sex Club was the venue. In their most beautiful summer dresses for ladies, drummer/screamer Blair Colwell and guitarist/yeller Skyler Cafferata (their terms) took the stage for 40 minutes of utter chaos. Touring behind their 2023 EP It’s such a feeling when you rockThe band also incorporated melodies from their previous releases.

Grimelda, self-proclaimed lovers of bad punk, bad pop and bad metal, pour everything into a cauldron and create a feast for the senses. It’s impossible to put the band into a neat little box. Each song is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get. And elements that don’t belong together are presented in all their glory. It works. Somehow.

The guys create an incredibly dense soundscape live, even though they only perform as a duo. Since both of them are responsible for the screaming, Skyler ventures out into the crowd with a microphone stand and guitar in hand to get the audience a little carried away. At one point, a fan howled into the microphone while Skyler hammered away on the guitar. It was Blair’s turn too and he threw his 30-meter microphone cable and a few bags of tinsel noisemakers from the 1-euro shop into the crowd so that the fans could blow them during the last song.

Ingredients from among others Jack White, Flaming lips, Ramones, Lane Staley, red hot chili peppers and all sorts of other glam sludge metal tropes were on full display. Standout pieces from the show were “Dirty L’ll Dirtbike” And “Keep going“, both from the new version.

Check the band out if they’re in your area. Live music shouldn’t be boring, and Grimelda understands that. “What the hell was that?”, indeed!