K-OS Improves His Karma

When K-OS announced his pay-what-you-can concerts in major Canadian cities, fans expected a massive clusterfuck of lineups and capacity violations. That didn't happen in the artist's hometown.

The Toronto event benefited greatly from lousy weather, as most fans opted for their warm homes over queuing on windy Queen's Quay. The ground around the lineup to get in was littered with Rogers promotional material. Part-time employees handed out "K-OS bling," like a rave card in the shape of a dollar sign, advertising Rogers' new URmusic downloading engine. A nearby projection screen displayed a short film of David Suzuki in a kimono sparring with an imaginary opponent while the very all-ages audience filed into the venue rather obediently.

The proceedings began with one of the most miscast opening acts this reviewer has ever seen. Toronto threesome Flash Lightnin' bewildered the hipster hip-hop audience with their brand of lumberjack rock. Each member sported an impressive ZZ Top beard. Besides a handful of facial hair enthusiasts, most of the crowd wandered off to the bars.

K-OS' set opened rather slowly. He jumped onto the barebones stage, fully hooded and shaded, and broke into "Burning Bridges," the lead single off Yes! Somehow the sound mix of the Kool Haus wasn't quite right, and the vocals lacked energy.

The performance really didn't pick up until about five songs in, as the bassist kicked off "Crabbuckit," which incited a venue wide clap-along. The set was fraught with name-dropping, an on-stage appearance by members of Broken Social Scene and Saukrates. Leslie Feist and Suzuki were also apparently in the audience. An in-crowd rumour suggesting that Sam Roberts would appear on stage to perform "Valhalla" started. He didn't.

The most successful songs were generally from Joyful Rebellion and Atlantis: Hymns For Disco, as the new material largely fell on a quiet audience. Highlights included the bass-heavy "Electrik Heat – The Seekwill," which induced the greatest amount of crowd participation all night, along with the single-song encore of "The Love Song."

Despite a number of highs, the show suffered from an equal number of bloopers. The pauses between songs were much too long, which obliged K-OS to make awkward conversation with the crowd. At one point, he broke out into an ill-advised freestyle that failed epically.

"Yeah, yeah, David Suzuki in the house... uh... swine flu... uh... shit."

It's best to avoid those once inebriated.

I question the necessity of K-OS playing instruments while joined on stage by six very adept musicians, namely a guitarist, bassist, DJ and three drummers. Focus on the freestyle and not on clumsily strumming your bass guitar.

Still, for a free show, the crowd got sufficient bang for their buck, and the donation boxes seemed to have really loaded up. In that regard, the karma tour was probably a success.