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Paddy O'Donnell Revealed at last...
July 23, 2025 The right Wavelength A kooky trio sets the stage with indie music and offbeat fun By KIERAN GRANT -- Toronto Sun It's the evening of the Lord's day on College Street. Movies end and cafs empty as a thinning crowd of well-heeled weekenders wander home. People around here have to be at work in the morning. Upstairs at Ted's Wrecking Yard, however, the pint glasses are still clinking. Patrons in the packed rock club vie for elbow-room while, on stage, a local musician known as Peaches is whipping herself into a frenzy of lurid raps and primal electronic beats. It's Peaches' last week in Toronto before moving to Berlin, and her friends at Wavelength, a regular Sunday night feature at Ted's, are throwing a party. But then, the Wavelength folks throw a party every Sunday. "We like to think of Sunday as The New Saturday," says Jonny Dovercourt, a Toronto musician, writer and co-founder of the Wavelength series. "On Sunday, you don't have the same pressure to go out and have fun. It just happens." It's a wavelength Dovercourt has travelled weekly since February, when he launched the series along with fellow organizers Paddy O'Donnell and Doc Pickles -- whom, like Dovercourt, adopted their Wavelength noms de guerre for this interview. Behind Wavelength's laid-back attitude is a clear mission: To provide a regular creative outlet for some of Toronto most challenging musicians. Now in its 24th week, the series started as a sort of mutual appreciation society for Toronto's indie-rock elite. The inspiration for it was simple enough: A member of local bands Kid Sniper and Mason Hornet -- Pickles is also in Mason Hornet, while O'Donnell is better known as Derek Westerholm, leader of the acclaimed Parts Unknown -- Dovercourt had grown frustrated by the lack of opportunities for underground bands in Toronto. Then, while kicking around ideas for a Web site or magazine "to shine a light on our little corner of the scene," he realized the best way to present music was on stage. "We were making our own fun," Dovercourt says. "But it's something we created for ourselves that other people can take part in." Wavelength has snowballed to include some 50 bands of varying styles. It's become part town-meeting, part musical-showcase, where plugged-in regulars can catch up with their cronies' bands and the uninitiated can sample underground talent. It's also spawned a monthly Wavelength program guide, a homespun 'zine complete with inventive band profiles, news bits and editorial rants. "All of these things force us to work beyond our usual slack regimen," Dovercourt says, laughing. "There is a weekly impetus here." Meanwhile, the series' unpretentious vibe remains one of its strongest suits, and some Wavelength traditions have quickly fallen into place: As official emcee, Pickles is the anithesis of the typically aloof indie-rocker, peppering his stage patter with self-deprecating stories. One Wavelength regular frequently performs a loose ballet during band performances. Games of musical chairs have been known to break out. Ted's Wrecking Yard's leafy residential surroundings back up the community feel. The cover charge is always pay-what-you-can, with Pickles collecting audience donations in a silver pig named Henri. (Money goes to the bands, while Wavelength is sustained with a 5% cut of bar sales, minimal advertising in the 'zine and sponsorship from neighbouring College St. CD emporium Soundscapes.) Still, rather than hopelessly plot the overthrow of the country's pop-music structure, the Wavelength crew prefer to celebrate their corner of its basement. "We're not trying to be big-time bookers, and we're not trying to compete with the Queen St. clubs," says Dovercourt. The series' top draws have so far included the aforementioned Peaches gig, Parts Unknown and local psych-rockers Wayne Omaha. The criteria for bands? Dovercourt and O'Donnell have to like them. "There's a long history of nights like this in Toronto that dates back to the Crash 'N' Burn club in the late '70s," says O'Donnell. "We were trying to start up a concise series that was really going to serve the scene in a positive way." Wavelength is, in fact, a direct descendant of the El Mocambo's now-defunct Sedated Sundays, and includes many veterans from those mid-'90s gigs. While it has carved out its niche on Sunday nights, it certainly isn't the only series that's met with success lately. Dovercourt and O'Donnell cite DJ club nights such as Milk and Movement, the latter of which is a huge draw at the Roxy Blu nightclub one Friday night a month, as major inspirations. "They've managed to cultivate an identity," says Dovercourt. "By postering and being a constant presence in clubs and record stores, they've created an entity that exists separately from the individuals involved. That's the best way to go about it." Ever supportive of Wavelength's bands, Dovercourt darts away from our interview to take his usual place in front of the stage as a set begins. It's a week after the Peaches performance and, while Wavelength hasn't packed the place this time, a healthy crowd of about 100 has come out to see glamorous pop-rockers The Spy and an impressive scientist-rock outfit called Spacecraft 7. Spotted in the audience this time is Roger O'Donnell, keyboardist for The Cure and sometime Toronto resident. It's not the first rock star sighting at Wavelength -- Moist frontman David Usher was by a few months back, and even kindly slipped a $10 bill in Henri. Says Dovercourt: "There's a stereotype of Toronto as an industry-centre town where people are cold and put on a pose. But there's a secret Toronto that is the opposite to that -- people are receptive to new things, want to make friends and do interesting things for the sake of doing them, not for the sake of commercial success or some elite status." "Or so we say," cracks O'Donnell. THE WAVELENGTH FILE Where & When: Ted's Wrecking Yard (549 College St.), every Sunday at 10 p.m. First Wavelength: Feb. 13, 2000, with Mean Red Spiders and Neck. Next Wavelength: Tonight, with The Dinner Is Ruined and Stella. More info: Check out Derek Westerholm's radio show, Fridays at 10 p.m. on CIUT 89.5 or visit http://come.to/wavelength. questions?...e-mail us at |
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