Review: Dear Rouge at The Opera House in Toronto, November 25, 2022

Tonight’s Dear Rouge show at The Opera House felt like a joyful reunion. On a night where I got together with a good friend I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic, I felt also reunited with old friends in Dear Rouge, with old friends in their songs and with an old friend in live music.

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45. “Life Goes By And I Can’t Keep Up,” Dear Rouge

I’m not a jewellery guy. Well, I used to wear an earring, I’ve got my wedding ring, and back in my university days I thought it was cool to take my broken guitar strings and turn them into “guitar string bracelets.” But not real chains and bracelets.

The Spirts of Dear Rouge’s “Spirit”

The “About” page on Dear Rouge’s website currently asks the reader, “What does the word ‘spirit’ invoke in you?” I purposely didn’t read further because I wanted to think about this. It means a lot of things to me. It means your essence, almost like a soul; the light within you; everything that makes you you. It can suggest a kind of internal joy. Sometimes it’s a sense of inspiration. And there’s the obvious ghostly connotation.

New Dear Rouge: “Life Goes By And I Can’t Keep Up”

I’m like a week late on this. I started it last week, then got busy, but better late than never, right? It’s like life goes by and I can’t keep up or something, you know?

New Dear Rouge: “Fake Fame”

Three years ago – 2018 – was a big Dear Rouge year. Their bombastic second album, Phases, dropped, I saw them live twice, chatted with them once, and just generally fell deeper in love with them. On the new music front, they’ve been quiet ever since, yet still engaged with their fans, especially during the pandemic, performing full albums during livestreams (which I tried to enjoy like I was actually there), on Instagram, etc. But today, finally: new music! So here are my first thoughts on “Fake Fame”:

Review: Dear Rouge in my living room, November 5, 2020

Look at me, cheering like a geek in my living room.

Five years to the night since the first time I saw them live at Toronto’s Mod Club, Dear Rouge played my living room tonight. Well, sort of. They played a live concert on YouTube from a funky joint in Vancouver, giving the live treatment to their entire first album, Black to Gold.

Pandemic Positivity #3: Stolen Days

I gotta say, yesterday was a pretty good day for socially distant smiles.

41. “Little by Little,” Dear Rouge

This is the post this blog was made for. Since I started the blog back in 2010, this is only the second time the perfect song has come up on shuffle at the perfect time (here’s the first). It’s the ultimate in shuffled synergy and it made me feel alive. 

10 Songs that Made Me Happy in 2018

Sometimes with these year-end lists I like to keep it to songs that were released during the year in question. That would probably be the “professional” or “proper” thing to do. But this blog is neither. I’m the boss here and I say these are just songs I listened to a lot in 2018 and they made me happy – though most are 2018 releases. And, you know what? I’m not even going to bother ranking them this year because my current mood is “art ain’t no competition.” Also, I’m keeping it to one song per act.

Review: Dear Rouge at Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, October 18, 2018

I had a “moment” during Dear Rouge’s gem of a show at Danforth Music Hall in Toronto. A moment inspired by a moment in life relayed by singer Danielle McTaggart as she introduced “The Clearing,” the dramatic track that closes Phases, their latest album.