The BallRoom Babies

The Ballroom Babies will take to the Bread & Honey Festival’s main stage on Friday night for the third consecutive year.
The Mississauga classic rock trio will close the festival’s first night with a 90-minute set, beginning at 8:30 p.m. in Memorial Park.
The band is comprised of three brothers: Mike (drums), Steve (guitar) and Nathan (bass) Colucci. Though they've played together since childhood, the brothers began performing as The Ballroom Babies just three years ago.
They've come a long way in a short time, playing frequently in Mississauga and numerous other cities across the Greater Toronto Area.
The Ballroom Babies have become popular among audiences for their covers of various classic rock and blues artists. Today, the band boasts a repertoire of nearly 200 covers as well as a collection of original material. Some of the original material will be included on the band’s first EP, set to be released this summer.
While they're inspired by artists such as Grand Funk Railroad, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles, The Ballroom Babies maintain they put a conscious effort into being “more than just a throwback” to music of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
“We definitely draw influences, but we’re not replicating,” Steve says. “We’re trying to move forward and reflect the issues that are going on today in our music ... so there’s a unique blend of old and new sounds.”
It's this blend, they say, that has helped them attract a diverse fan base. They say their fan base spans generations, ranging from high school and university crowds to older adult audiences.
And while Friday's audience can expect to hear Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and Pink Floyd covers the band is known for, something new is also on tap.
The Ballroom Babies will perform a number of original songs, including some never-before-heard pieces that they'll debut throughout the set.
“It will be a very dynamic show. We purposely made the set diverse,” says Mike. - The Mississauga Mews

Once a month, Greenshades puts on Thursday Thursday, a live show featuring three or four local independent bands. (Full disclosure: the four members of Greenshades are former elementary schoolmates of mine.) On the bill this month is Ballroom Babies, The Deadbeats, and My Friend's Big Heads.



As always, this edition of Thursday Thursday, was held in the upper room of Rancho Relaxo, on College Street, a venue with just the right size and griminess for a small indie music show.


Taking place on one of the first cold and snowy nights of the season, the crowd is noticeably smaller than usual when the Ballroom Babies take the stage. With a banner, lights and a smoke machine, it's clear that the three-piece has put some thought into their show. They even have something of a unified look, one that makes me want to watch Wayne's World. Musically, they seem to bear the influence of Jimi Hendrix (they even do a pretty good cover of “Fire”), The Mars Volta (or maybe that's just their hair), and a bit of MC5/Stooges. While their look is quite unified, each member clearly has his own sound that comes out in each different song. By halfway through the Ballroom Babies set the place had filled up. Most of the crowd seemed to be fans or acquaintances of the band. After the set, there is a buzz in the crowd, a buzz, I suspect, that has nothing to do with the band that is about to take the stage.


The Deadbeats are a three-piece with no discernible look. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they had just wandered on to the stage accidentally. While the Ballroom Babies clearly put some thought and effort into their set, the Deadbeats clearly did not. Their musical style, varies from a sloppy version of The Strokes, to lazy Marvin Gaye songs, to an odd innuendo-laden song with lyrics reminiscent of “Big Bottom” by Spinal Tap. When trying to pinpoint similarities between the Deadbeats and other bands I found my self not wanting to insult other bands by comparing them. The closest I could come up with was a blend of The Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes if neither knew how to tune a guitar.


Up next was My Friend's Big Heads, a four-piece. Like the Deadbeats, they lacked a unified look, but unlike the Deadbeats, they seemed to realize they were performing. At this point in the night I had had a few, and my notes got a little cryptic. I couldn't articulate what they sounded like, but they were genuinely entertaining. The bassist had a natural rapport with the audience and was pretty funny. Unfortunately, the bass player from the Deadbeats was enjoying the set so much that he felt the need to start moshing. I didn't realize a moshpit had started until the people standing in front of me, enjoying My Friend's Big Heads, were quite suddenly knocked backwards into me. Also knocked over were a few beers of the band on stage, a fact not unnoticed by the previously affable bassist of My Friend's Big Heads. This led to an argument between the to bass players followed by an argument between one of the promoters and the Deadbeat in question. Seemingly unfazed by the event, My Friend's Big Heads played the rest of their set, including a rendition of “Money (That's What I Want)” with the Ballroom Babies on backup vocals.


This edition of Thursday Thursday was, due to the weather, more low-key than others I had attended, and there was a bit of a musical black hole in the middle of the show, but all-in-all it was a decent end to Greenshades' 2011 and a good primer for the new year. - The Unemployed Linguist