Top Less Gay Love Tekno Party

“I don’t even know where to start. first off, their name. top less gay love tekno party. yes, all of those words. that is their band name. and you know what? having seen them, it’s beyond fitting.
I knew were were in for a crazy good time when the band came out. in space suits. well, pieces of space suits. made of spandex. silver hot pants and belly shirts. some members wearing both. some wearing just the pants. and did i mention the glitter and body paint? yes, silver body paint, and amounts of glitter that I’m sure are still in their hair, beards and belly buttons for weeks and weeks after their shows. the pics i’ve included are total crap, obviously the iphone couldn’t handle the shinetastic awesomeness of the space suits and glitter. but i had to include them so that you’d have even a very small sense of the crazy.
before the band even struck a chord, they began throwing balloons out into the crowd. everyone was eagerly pawing for their own to wave emphatically to the beat (i scored three…but who’s counting?)
now, at this point, things could have gone incredibly good, or incredibly bad. perhaps this was just their schtick and they actually sound like shite. surprisingly, this was not the case. i guess when you look this all-out crazy, you have to deliver. and trust me, they did. i have never clapped three balloons so enthusiastically in the air. the songs were infecteous and dance-y and fun. perhaps a bit too fun. halfway into their third song, one of the fans at the front of the stage took off his shirt and threw it at the band. the shirt was quickly followed by his pants. yep. he was down to his boxers and moccasins, and dancing up a storm. his friend followed suit. removing his overalls and dancing around in his tee, his boxers and his knee-high frye boots.
soon glitter was being thrown on the audience. and then water. and then more glitter. but no one cared. we clapped our balloons like crazy people and danced around some more. they had us eating out of their hands. it was a ridiculously good time.” - Cherylese.com

“Day two of Canadian Music Week and I’ve been glittered within an inch of my life by the Top Less Gay Love Tekno Party who, I am told by a man who caught a glimpse of my media wristband at another showcase earlier today, are Canada’s next top band. The folks at Rancho Relaxo likewise seem to share his enthusiasm. Its the most energetic crowd I’ve seen all night despite the fact that it is 2:30AM and Toronto has been awash with rain and freezing temperatures since I arrived 36 hours ago. In the end, I too was powerless to resist their wonky sex pop and fought my way to the front to experience my first Top Less gay Love Tekno Party close up and personal with the rest of the glitterati.

TLGLTP were a brilliant way to close my first full day at CMW, so much fun, in fact, that I left the show so full of energy that I opted to forgo a cab and walk 20 minutes back to my room through the steady winter rain.” - The Indie Handbook

A no-hands, tighty-whitey and freshly-oiled-cowboy-boot party that gets really messy.” This is how TGLTP describe their live shows. Top Less Gay Love Tekno Party is the whole package, bedecked in all manner of fineries, from spandex and feathers to oriental robes. A heartwarming amalgamation of Born Ruffians meets The Go Team meets Cirque Du Soleil meets a giant Costco wholesale box of Gusher’s Grape, TGLTP’s sound inspires images of summertime ninja bike club adventures. If this pack of loonies takes the stage and you are not partaking in the divine foot tapping, hair throwing, fist pumping mind meld often seen between disciple and deity, it is likely because you are an inanimate object, such as a barstool or a pen. - Rifflandia Music Festival 2010

Topless Gay Love Tekno Party started with the two members Mike Schindler and Donne Torr in Glasgow, UK. They brought their euro electro madness sound back to North America and joined forces with the four other masterminds: Dave Vertesi, Sean Tyson, Kevin Fairbairn, Michael Shindler & Benny Schuetze. The group is by far the most exciting live band I have ever seen. Whether its confetti, spandex, disco balls or giant polar bar videos projected onto the stage they get it done and oh yeah they manage to play some of the best music you’ve heard in long damn time and bring energy out of the crowd like you’ve never seen!! This crew makes me feel there is still hope for modern music… They are a breath of fresh air to the music industry of today and I can’t wait to see what they will become. - The Lab Magazine

o give you an idea:

once i was in a park in strathcona (vancouver) with guitarist / vocalist / writer / dancer / all-round angelfromheaven and producer mikey shindler, his sister, and a dear scottish friend in town for a few weeks of goodtimes. it was nearing the end of summer but our tallcans and the smoking of things kept us warm and merry against the ever-creeping shadows of dusk.

mikey said something like: “i gotta make some changes, kids. things are gonna change around daddy’s house. it’s the revolution. you gotta get into it. i’m into it.”

and his sister asked: “what’s the revolution this time?”

“easy,” he told her. “whole new me. i’m a respectable, peaceloving citizen of the world. everynight’s gonna be the same routine: smoke a joint, watch the news at eleven, go to bed. wake up. repeat. that’s it.”


and to give you another idea:

that refrain: “smoke a joint. watch the news. go to bed. wake up, repeat, repeat” is now the featured chorus of one of their newer songs.

toplessgayloveteknoparty is all spandex-onesies and getupandgo, a delightfully orchestrated seeming-chaos of guitars, drums, keyboards, sweeping harmonies and rousing choruses, sexy basslines and songs so riprollicking with love happiness and joy that i dare you not to dance and pump your fist in the air when you listen to them.

liveshows are a feast for pretty much every sense.

give them a wee listen here:


http://www.myspace.com/toplessgayloveteknoparty


and do me a favor: don’t let their name, or the fullbodyglittersuits, or the fact that soon everyone you know will be talking about them and singing their glorious praises lead you to believe that this band is just another over-hyped, immaterial, flashinthepan kind of situation.

the difference, friends, is that all the beautiful creatures (6-8, depending on the time and place) of tgltp are each exquisitely talented in what they do: individually they are all among those humans with a kind of preternatural genius; as a mass-ensemble, they are like an all-encompassing juggernaut of energy, dynamism and unfailingly a straight-up balls-out pique of all that talent crystallized in such a way that to experience them playing in a room is to be close to something special, something rare, something that will make you forget yourself and dance. - Birdsi'veyou

Next up on Valentine’s Day was the LAB Magazine party at Fortune Sound Club, which saw the last show of The Blue Violets as well as The Racoons and Topless Gay Love Tekno Party:

- Vancouver is Awesome

Sometimes a band is worth seeing simply because of their name. That was the case with Topless Gay Love Tekno Party’s Sept. 24 performance. At first glance, the band seems like a gimmick. The five-piece band was dressed in silver spandex shorts or pants, jackets and moonboots, with white war paint on their faces. The band had the audience enraptured before the first note was played.

If the name doesn’t draw you in out of sheer curiosity, the catchy dance tunes will. Gay Love don’t just do dance songs either; the set was diverse with a good mixture of slower tunes and crowd-pleasing upbeat ones. - The Martlet

Sometimes a band is worth seeing simply because of their name. That was the case with Topless Gay Love Tekno Party’s Sept. 24 performance. At first glance, the band seems like a gimmick. The five-piece band was dressed in silver spandex shorts or pants, jackets and moonboots, with white war paint on their faces. The band had the audience enraptured before the first note was played.

If the name doesn’t draw you in out of sheer curiosity, the catchy dance tunes will. Gay Love don’t just do dance songs either; the set was diverse with a good mixture of slower tunes and crowd-pleasing upbeat ones. - The Martlet

Ain't No Party Like A...Gay Party.
When a set is only 6 songs long, and a DJ, then the main act play in the four hours that pass and still someone comes up to me at 2am singing "Topless...Gay Love...Tekno Party"/"That song is going to be stuck in my head for days!" ...you know you have something good.

Thursday night I pulled myself out of my house (with a headache and the knowledge that I was going to be dancing) and went to my second home, The Media Club, to photograph Topless Gay Love Tekno Party.

I saw some photos from their show in Tofino and upon arrival, volunteered my abilities for the dance sequence at the end of the set.
Meaning?
I donned a Ketchup costume and danced beside Mustard and a Hot Dog on the stage.

These guys are way too much fun, which is probably why the Media Club is featuring them as the artist of the month. Here are some shots by me and two by Mr. Mark Cohene, who was kind enough to shoot while I danced it up.

http://www.nxew.ca/labels/Topless%20Gay%20Love%20Tekno%20Party.html - Christine McAvoy- North By East West Blog