Walking into the Canopy Club last night, I was surprised to realize that in what has to be a first for the venue, I was under-dressed. Leather, coiffed hair and skinny jeans were everywhere. Mind you, that isn’t intended as a criticism. It seemed like a lot of people were unfamiliar with the Canopy (I witnessed several people asking barstaff where the bathrooms were, for instance), so hopefully a good many of them had a good time and will continue to attend shows there. And perhaps it’s just due to a lack of jadedness, but the energy level (and temperature) inside the club were at least double what I would have expected.
The evening kicked off with a performance from Natalia Kills, who slogged two and a half songs in a confusing fifteen minutes, leaving the crowd stuck somewhere between laughter and awkward applause. While her able dancing and stage routine kept things moderately interesting, her set would have started to be offensive if it had gone on much longer, given that even in that length of time she somehow managed to play the same song twice.
After the unappetizing first opener, the mood was somewhat dampened as Toronto solo act Diamond Rings (aka Toronto’s Brian O’Regan) began to set up his gear. Dressed in gold tights, high-top sneakers, a blue leather jacket (which he quickly shed for a “Stay Fierce” tshirt) and an honest to god Venetian carnival mask, O’Regan cut one hell of an imposing figure. Did I mention he’s 6’4, has a fauxhawk and smiles constantly? On the musical end, he gave a deft, confident performance which was a bit unpolished, but oozed promise. One of the best solo acts I’ve seen in quite some time — and I mean solo act. Singing over laptop beats is a far cry from the Diamond Rings one-man band. Deftly swapping between keys, loop pedals, beat sequencing and gothy vocals. He even got in a few songs on guitar, quipping that it was the only one we’d be seeing on stage all night. As the roadies uncovered Robyn’s gear, Diamond Rings was proven right. Two drumsets, two massive synth/keyboard racks and three massive strobes were all that was on-stage.
While I saw Robyn play an impressive set backed by only a DJ at Pitchfork this past summer, the addition of the band really pushed the performance through the roof. Aside from the cool, reverse Robert Palmer vibe that the all-male band’s white outfits gave off, they were instrumentally 
phenomenal, grooving as hard as Holy Fuck did in the same room back in September and seamlessly segueing between songs during Robyn’s ninety minute, two encore performance. While some of the hits were dispatched with early (“Cobrastyle”, “Dancing on My Own”), the overall pacing and energy of the show were near-perfect, the visually paralyzing light show would have made Trent Reznor blush, and Robyn was absolutely kinetic on stage, jumping off the drum risers, leading singalongs and dancing maniacally.
While she briefly walked off-stage during “Love Kills” due to malfunctioning wireless mic, that freed up the band to stretch out a little bit and was actually kind of cool. By the time they launched into an epic, set-closing rendition of “Stars 4-Ever”, any bad feelings were long forgotten. Wasting no time in getting back on stage, the first encore consisted of the 1-2-3 punch of “Dancehall Queen”, “Hang With Me”, and “With Every Heartbeat”, while the second started with Snoop Dogg collaboration “U Should Know Better” and a searing, extra-frantic “Konichiwa Bitches”. Finally, Robyn brought the mood down with a verse of (what else) ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”, before jumping into her 1997 mega-single “Show Me Love”. If I were forced to level a complaint about the evening, it would be that the Canopy was inexplicably only two-thirds full — not that it felt like it, with the ridiculous amount of energy coming off both the stage and crowd.
All photos by Justine Bursoni
Video by Dan Kuglich