Henri Faberge And The Adorables Lead An Indie Takeover Of The Palais Royale

Local indie act Henri Faberge And The Adorables are celebrating their debut CD release with a bang. They're taking over Toronto's swank Palais Royale on Sept. 16 for a day of barbecuing, bands and fireworks.

"We're going to get fireworks as big as we can without burning anything down," says Henry Fletcher, a.k.a. Henri Faberge, leader of the Adorables.

The band started rather accidentally while Fletcher was playing in Spitfires & Mayflowers.

"I was writing some weirder narrative-driven songs that didn't really fit with that band," he says.

Fletcher eventually had about 10 songs that he recorded on a four-track machine for his friends and family members as a Christmas gift.

"I got a great photo of me in front of a Christmas tree holding a cat like a small baby, and I thought it was fitting that it was more of a charlatan, I guess French romantic character," he says of the concept and the adoption of the Henri Faberge moniker.

"And then from that, I put together a small band of my friends to play a show to see how it would work out. And then it just kind of evolved and devolved from there."

The CD release party will be held on the back patio of the Palais from 2 to 11 p.m., with non-stop music from 12 bands, including The Adorables, The Bicycles, Barmitzvah Brothers, Gentleman Reg, Ultramagnus, Rural Alberta Advantage, Skeleton Me (of Born Ruffians), Laura Barrett, Castlemusic, Basement Arms, Spitfires & Mayflowers (who are coming out of retirement for the show) and Township Expansion. There will also be a comedy interlude with Rebecca Addelman, Inessa Frantowski and Holly Prazoff.

Fletcher hand-picked the lineup of his favourite Toronto bands.

"It's kind of nice to rope in all the bands that I enjoy watching without worrying if they're big draws," he says. "The booker just gave me freedom to book whoever I wanted."

From 11 p.m. 'til close, the back patio will keep rocking while a DJ dance party delivers beats inside.

"It's going to be a really amazing show," says Fletcher. "It's kind of like a throwback to smaller bands taking over the larger venue where they normally wouldn't get a chance to play."

If you've been to an Adorables show at their mainstay venue, The Embassy in Kensington Market, you know that things tend to get a little wild.

"It's just kind of like a dancing throng of people that pulse back and forth," explains Fletcher.

"There's no real stage, so we're always getting bumped into, and people kind of surround our intertwined band while we're playing. So it's like the band are part of the people that come there. There's a lot of dancing and non-stop sweaty people, and people ruffling each other a lot, and it gets really weird."

Fletcher promises that many of these same crazy antics will ensue at the Palais Royale bash.

"Depending on who's there — and the people who come to the Adorables' shows tend to get up to the weirdest pranks — I imagine there will probably be some swimming in the lake. There will be a lot of tackling of people. Maybe a food fight, a water fight, who knows. All of our shows are pretty unpredictable. I think overall it's just going to be a really fun time."

Of course, having it all go down at the Palais helps, too.

"It's one of the more luxurious and beautiful venues in Toronto, where normally you'd be paying like $40 to see like Method Man and whatever weird shows you get down there. And so for $10, you get to sit down by the lake and watch 12 bands and hang out all day. It's going to be pretty awesome."

Tickets are available at Rotate This, Soundscapes and The Embassy.