The crowd was ready for Rufus – and you could tell. Lead singer of Rufus, Tyrone Lindqvist repeatedly exclaimed how thankful and surprised they were to not only sell out a venue on a Tuesday, but to also for the amount of energy in the crowd ( He obviously doesn’t know that in Toronto days of the week matter about as much as points in Whose Line is it Anyways. They don’t. We can party to good music whenever).

Granted, the energy inside Phoenix was absolutely electric. After a stellar performance at the Mod Club in the Spring, Toronto was ready for Rufus. The Australian trio has gained a solid following after their deep feels album Bloom was released back in January 2016- yes this was almost a year ago now. The album, which was written after the group spent two months in Berlin has some obvious pop influences, but it’s also very apparent that Berlin’s famous music culture influenced the album, and their performances. This time around they were accompanied by Dena Amy, who played a great DJ set and was able to really connect with the audience through poppy synths and high hats galore. She also came back on stage during Rufus’ set to sing her part in one of my favourite tracks, “Hypnotized”.  After Amy, Roland Tings came out for a live set. While seemingly channeling the DJ version of Napoleon Dynamite, Roland took the room by surprise as he played a live set. Unfortunately, i think the intricacies and technical prowess of his talents were lost on the pleb crowd, but we at HOL were loving it.

Finally, Rufus came to the stage and opened with fan favourite “Brighter”. The show was mystical, energetic, emotional and very entertaining. Whoever did their stage production and lighting deserves a round of applause as their production really added a layer to their performance. While running through most of Bloom, they also managed to slip in a few old goodies like “Take Me.” The crowd sang, danced and screamed along with the tracks as they perfectly transitioned from one hit to the next. Lead singer Tyrone was noticeably shocked by the amount of energy and the level of volume in the building throughout the performance as he sported a goofy surfer boy grin from cheek to cheek whenever not making all the girls (and boys) swoon with his voice of an angel. All I can say is thank god he doesn’t sing with an Australian accent.

While they ended with Like an Animal, everyone’s favourite Innerbloom was played in full, after we were asked to go on a 9 minute journey with them. While Innerbloom does clock in just over a 9 and a half minutes of love, Rufus’ set was two hours of bliss, and feels- all on a Tuesday.