Live music review

Dallas Green has stumbled into an unlikely cult stardom. For most of his career the Toronto musician dutifully hefted a guitar for hardcore band Alexisonfire. On the side he wrote emotive acoustic songs but did not believe they would ever find an audience. However, when Alexisonfire fans discovered Green’s secret life as a troubadour, they encouraged him to share his music. Thus was born City and Colour, a side-project that has thoroughly taken over the 33-year-old’s life.

With little media attention, and practically no radio play, the Olympia is nearly a sell-out. Clearly Green has brought his Alexisonfire audience with him, as the room is a sea of hoodies and middle-class piercings. The crowd are enraptured as Green and his group troop stoically on, plunging into the first of many mid-paced ballads, most of which refract Green’s tortured side from a multitude of angles.