• Jason_Daniel_Baker
• Mon, 04/20/2009 - 8:13pm

By Jason Daniel Baker

A quiet longhaired young woman in jeans, red T-shirt and gold shoes extracts an oddly shaped electric guitar from its case and after examining it for a moment she plugs it in. A chatty and diminutive female in a halter top with short hair comes up a few minutes later and adjusts the microphone at the foot of the stage so that she can reach it. The low-key guy on bass and the drummer assume their familiar positions. In a few minutes they begin their set and suddenly time stands still.

Unearthly thunder shoots forth formed and shaped by the guitarist's manipulation of her strange looking axe. The small woman gyrates to the primal rhythm and deftly interjects with timely vocals. The sound pierces the quiet of Toronto's Tattoo Rock Parlor like graffiti spray painted on an urban alleyway wall. The natural texture is vividly genuine live hard rock unspoiled by the blending that overproduced studio material often has today.

Mixing Mediterranean sensuality and Rock N Roll attitude Toronto's own Red Light Riot are fronted by guitarist Donna Grantis and vocalist Francine Scala, distant cousins and both formerly of the band On Switch. Francine's raspy yet girlish vocals and Donna's Gibson Explorer jazz-influenced guitar licks highlight their truthful, revivalist sound, which evokes the greatest legends of classic rock album collections. This is unmistakably the music that has excited the senses of for over half a century.

The politically incorrect term "chick rock" sometimes applied to other acts is inapplicable to this combo. A Red Light Riot showstopper like Black Heart Woman brings to mind Black Dog by Led Zeppelin and Kick it Out by Heart. It is a sound that rocks without bearing any discernible imprint of gender though Francine's vocals hit a few octaves higher than male singers tend to.

I have seen few musicians on the Toronto scene more comfortably give and take with each other during performance as these two do. I suspect it comes from their having played together for so long having known each other from when they were each very young teens. Virtuoso performers of heavy blues like Donna and Francine tend to combine that with eloquence in instrumentation. Their chemistry with each other is utterly smoldering yet I felt chills and goosebumps while hearing them play.

The rhythm section drive behind them is crucial to the appeal of their arrangements and is paid due attention. Keith Heppler is on drums and Mark Walsh keeps up the low end on bass.

http://www.myspace.com/redlightriot

Sadly this act seems nowhere to be found these days. I'm told they split up in summer 2008.