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Inside Tattoo Rock Parlour

Someone once told me that a review is supposed to be unbiased and impartial. I remember disagreeing with them, because it seems that the very idea is to infuse the piece with your own opinion.

In my growing quest to become a pretentious Queen West hipster, I jumped at the chance to review Drowning Girl and Tara Slone playing at Tattoo Rock Parlour this past Wednesday.

Drowning Girl on stage at Tattoo

Unfortunately, they didn’t deliver in quite the underrated indie fashion that I was expecting. Instead, Drowning Girl was exactly the pop punk outfit that I expected them to be when I first spotted them onstage. The pleasant surprise was that as musicians they are really talented. The bassist played a slew of solid lines and the frontwoman works a raspy voice that sounds surprisingly more accomplished than the possible twenty years that she appears to be.

Tara Slone on stage at Tattoo

The big draw of the night was their follow-up act Tara Slone. It seems odd to give her the higher accolades when in fact it was the majority of Drowning Girl that served as her backup band. But, Tara Slone had a command of the stage that was lacking in the act prior. She created a forceful energy that was difficult to ignore and managed to channel a Juliette Lewis vibe -minus the crazy. Covers of David Bowie and Joydrop were distinct despite their already infamous sounds.

Tattoo really is a gem amongst the pizza parlours and vintage clothing shops, which already line Queen West. It is decked out in sharp contrasting black and pinks, dark fringe hangs above the bar and music fans seat bop on Victorian style dining chairs. If you too are looking to venture towards a trendy life of hipsterism, then Tattoo is definitely worth a visit.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Entertainment, Music, Spots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.