Bob Moses fills Toronto’s CODA with a new, more melodic sound

Toronto’s CODA is one of those small clubs that almost feels like a bar with a few seemingly lost tables scattered around the dance floor. The venue is known for their clean sound and gathers a vivid crowd of inbetweeners – people who are not quite hipsters, but won’t be found down the street having bottle service too frequently either.

“It’s great to be back at CODA” chimed Bob Moses‘ Jimmy Vallance while arranging himself in the corner of the stage. The set up was quite simple, barely lit, with a couple of stand up curtains in the center to set the mood. The set kicked off with “Talk,” one of the darker tracks from the recent release Days Gone By, which set the stage for the rest of the night.

All music the duo makes is deeply personal and based on real life experiences, “Lots of the songs are about the same relationships” said Vallance during our pre-tour interview, some of those songs are about their relationship to the world, which they framed in a way that sounds like a relationship between two people. It could be that emotion which Vallance and Tom Howie put into the songs that makes them easy to relate to and easy to get attached to. Organized glitchy beats set a powerful runway for Howie’s soft vocals that seem somewhat cold compared to the emotional depth of the lyrics, but it all somehow makes sense, it shows a kind of immunity to pain and strength in recovery.

Days Gone By dropped less than a month ago, but people in this crowd already knew the lyrics. Hearing people talk, it was clear the crowd was divided into the old Bob Moses fans and the new ones, “This one is my favorite” I overhear a couple talking about “Far From The Tree” from the Far From The Tree EP.

Vallance and Howie played a solid hour-long set, mixing tracks from Days Gone By and Far From The Tree EP including “All I Want.” All the way to the last beat of the encore, people remained in their spots, dancing and bopping. This tour is off to a great start.