Moxy appeared at the North American Folk Alliance's 'Folk Dream Gala Concert' at Massey Hall in downtown Toronto. The concert presented several artists, ranging from Ani Difranco to Pete Seeger. It is the Alliance's mission to promote folk music all around the world. The concert was extremely well put together, although the sound quality was not as good as it could have been. The sound reverberated off the hall's bare walls, making the music sound very dispersed. Other than that, it was a wonderful show.

I attended this show with Heather Rolph, who lives in Toronto. We had great seats, 8th row, a little bit off-center. The show started a little bit after 8pm. Each artist had about 15 minutes to perform, so timing was kind of tight. The artists who performed were:

• Leahy
• Damien Brazier
• Alvin Youngblood Hart
• Moxy Früvous
• Ani DiFranco
• The Barra MacNeils
• Kate & Anna McGarrigle
• Pete Seeger

Moxy took the stage at about 8:45pm. They played a fairly short set, and here's the details:

• You Will Go to the Moon - Pretty much what we've all heard before, but right before the last line of the chorus ("someday flowers will grow there...") they added this pretty weird 10-second bit. I'm not sure if the album version will be this way or not, and it didn't really fit in the context that it was placed in. (Oh well, I'll let you be the judge if the album version is this way)
• Michigan Militia - A NEW one!! Pretty cool, Mike had a small keyboard on stage and was playing a weird pad patch on it during the solo. He also had a megaphone which was distorting his voice. Mike primary "spoke" the lead on this one. The chorus went "Happy Birthday Tricia, I'm in the Michigan Militia". Also, Dave had his banjo running through distortion for this number.
• Today's the Day that We Fight Back - They played this at the 10/26/96 labour rally. The lyrics were pretty much the same, with some small changes here and there. The lyrics are available on the 10/26/96 review page. Jian mentioned to me once that this may be on the new album as well. They definitely cleaned up this song, adding some thicker harmonies to the chorus.
• Gulf War Song - (Off-Mic) All I can say is, Wonderful. A flawless performance.

The audience received Moxy fairly well, I think. A lot of people there had probably never heard of them before, but the guys were in true form, keeping the audience laughing and entertained.

Well, at the end of the show, when Pete Seeger came out, he had the audience sing along to an old gospel tune. Then all the bands that participated that night (including Moxy) came out on stage to join in for a few verses. It was a perfect end to a great show.

After the show, Heather and I found Marcus, and talked to him for a bit. Then it was time to go home and get some much needed sleep.

This show was definitely one of the best settings I've ever seen Früvous in. The audience was definitely an older crowd, and the whole thing was meant to be a "sit down, shut up and listen" concert (except for the folk songs where the audience was prompted to sing along). Everyone was very friendly and the venue was beautiful; definitely worth the trip up from Rochester.

From the program:

Moxy Früvous began their career busking on the Toronto subway and soon built a following that translated into spectacular sales for their first Warner Bros. album, Bargainville. The quartet - Mike Ford, Murray Foster, Jean Ghomeshi, and David Matheson - soon found their local popularity could be exported. Festival and concert success in other Canadian centres, and now in the U.S. and Europe, keeps the group on the road; this appearance is their first following a two-month "rest" during which they probably wrote more silly, satirical, hilarious, and occasionally deadly serious songs for their growing repertoire.

• Moxy takes the stage...