El Mocambo music show: Art needs more focus

Doppleganger, held last Saturday, is the second part of a series of events created by Ali Malik, a Toronto music and art promoter. The series is known as elZOO, named after the venue, the El Mocambo, a nightclub in Toronto, north of Chinatown.
“I called it Zoo because it’s a zoo of a bunch of different art forms,” said Malik.
Doppleganger featured three bands a DJ and six artists last Saturday. The show was a non-profit event collecting food donations for the homeless and those in need in Toronto. At its peak the El Mocambo housed approximately 150 guests and collected more than 200 cans of food, according to Malik. Money raised during the event went to the bands that performed.
The six artists featured in the gallery were freelance illustrator Ty Dunitz, who had four digital paintings on display; illustrator Tyrel McNicol, who used a method of ink transfer onto wood, called acrylic polymer emulsion transfer; concert photographer Pete Nema, who had large prints including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nicole Atkins and Brant Bjork; Krista MacFarlane, who had two multimedia pieces on display; graphic designer, Anfrei Fortier and Eric Ealer, guitarists of the Isosceles Project severed a dual role by providing paintings for the gallery and performing with the rest of his band during the music portion.
The doors opened at 9:00 p.m. admission was $10 or $5 with a can of food to be donated. DJ Illicit provided music when the doors opened and between bands sets. Originally the narrow lobby was going to be empty and the gallery was going to be in the back room on the higher level of the El Mocambo. The art was moved to the front lobby so now guests would be exposed to it as soon as they came in. However the lobby may not have been the ideal place for artwork to be displayed, even if it was better than the back room.
“We lost one sub-par venue and gained another,” said Dunitz, who added the front room was “not fit for hanging art.”
Most of the walls were brick and Dunitz said there were only half a dozen nails already in the wall. Adding more nails was difficult since the walls were brick. The lighting was not ideal for showcasing paintings and prints, but did not hurt the show.
“(ElZOO is) a wonderful event,” said Dunitz, “but it’s a concert, not a music/art show.”
Over the front desk hung paintings by Eric Ealer, inside the lobby area Dunitz and McNicol`s art was on display together to the right with Nema, MacFarlane and Fortier on the left. Artist’s names and websites were posted with their work. Individual prints were labelled with the names of the piece, or in some cases, the sale price, including some mock prices like “$...”
The night started out slow with DJ Illicit playing music while the bands set up for the later shows. A number of the artists were in the lobby, talking with guests. The artwork was all fantastic and fit in the mood of the music show with edgy subject matter and photos that fit in with the garage band feel of the music. However one with an interest in the artwork can’t help but wish there was more too see.
Music started at 10:30 and as the night went on the event picked up with a full concert space. The night opened with the Harold Wartooth, a local garage band with a heavy rock sound. The band featured Omri Horwitz on vocals, Mike Mikocic on guitar, Brent Fagan on both guitar and vocals, “Emon” on Bass and Spencer Linton on drums. The band sounded great and with a sound system that could be heard all the way into the street and bass that you could feel in your chest.
The Isosceles Project followed, featuring Euler, the dual artist (whose work was on display in the gallery) and served as the band’s guitarist, Scott Tessier on bass and Justin Falzon on drums.
The night ended with Zuku featuring Brandon Kennedy on guitar and vocals, Matt Felske also on both guitar and vocals, Chris Chartrand on drums and Jordan Beard on bass.
The three bands all had a very hard rock sounding garage band style. Malik chose them to complement each other and it worked well.
Doppleganger was a great show, featuring great artwork and music, but in future elZOO shows they need to mesh better. The gallery felt like an after-thought with the music taking priority. It was a great event to showcase local talents in both music and visual arts. The event left attendees wanting more, which may work in Malik's favour, since he plans on holding more elZOO events, monthly.