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Gorgeous afternoon vistas, loud music and something called "Slanty Panties"

Here are some photos I took yesterday afternoon in the Queen and John area and last night at the Neksis magazine first anniversary party at Lee’s Palace. These feature Fresh Meat, Merkury Burn, Abs and Fase and Heaven Lee throwing panties at the audience. Fun, but not for the whole family.

Slight update: I changed someone’s name to their stage name.

Yesterday afternoon marked another day of hot, sunny weather, but the heat and humidity were offset by strong breezes that made the day more bearable and the evening pleasant. Here are a couple of shots I took near the office…

John Street. This accordion player don’t work in no stuffy office park! This is the view when I step outside the office.

Queen Street greenery. Here’s the view from Garden View, the 24-hour convenience-and-plant store, close to both home and the office.

Later that evening, I made my way to Lee’s Palace, where my friend “Too Tall” Tina Gravelson’s band, Fresh Meat, were playing. Heaven Lee, whom you may remember from this shot at Indie Incubation, was also there, and she told me she would be joining the band onstage.

Me: I didn’t know you played any instruments.

Heaven Lee: I don’t.

Me: Then you’re singing backup? Or maybe go-go dancing!

Heaven Lee: No, silly! I’ll be cooking hot dogs and handing out Slanty Panties!

Me: Slanty…panties? You mean like those panties worn by Japanese high school girls? The ones you can buy from vending machines in Tokyo?

Heaven Lee: Like that, except I’ll be peeling them off and giving them to the crowd.

Me: You can never go too classy.

Heaven Lee: And there’s hot dogs too!

Chilling before the gig. Tina hangs out at the bar before the show.

Fresh Meat’s set begins. Ooh! Is that a see-though-top? Double-ooh! Is that a George Foreman grill? Triple-ooh! Are those hot dogs?!

Let’s rock! Fresh Meat ripped into a short but energetic set, which was made surreal by Heaven Lee’s cooking hot dogs on stage left as they played.

Mmmmm….hot dogs. Heaven Lee’s multi-tasking here, preparing hot dogs and making special prize packages of classic Chinese food cartons stuffed with gifts, panties and topless polaroids of her.

Mandra! Mandra gives the bass a good workout.

Eat yer heart out, Avril Lavigne! Tina’s taller and could kick your ass!

Fresh Meat in tha house! Say, do you smell hot dogs?

Tina! In this shot, you can’t see the run in her stocking.

Striptease! Heaven Lee wore several layers of panties, which she stripped off one at a time over the course of the set. They went into gift packagaes, which she threw into the audience at the end of the set. Ain’t rock and roll grand?

Shocked and appalled. Will McLean and I, being two decent gentlemen, are stunned at the outrage taking place onstage.

Neither shocked nor appalled In fact, Jenn (in front) looks sex-kittenish. Marta, Jenn and some guy like what’s happening onstage.

Are those hot dogs done yet? Nice gitch, Heaven Lee.

As promised, Heaven Lee put the layers of panties she removed and put them into classic Chinese food take-out cartons and tossed them into the audience. Jenn and I each caught one and opened them.

Me: Panties…lots of confetti…ooh!

Jenn (looking at the Polaroid I pulled from the carton): What’s that?

Me: It’s a picture…of Heaven Lee. Topless, spread eagled on a couch. It looks like the backstage couch.

Jenn (reading what Heaven Lee wrote on the photo): “Love, Slanty Panties.” Nice.

Me: There’s some candy here, too.

Jenn: And look, two packs of condoms!

Me: Wait…those aren’t condom packs. They’re…pre-moistened hand wipes.

Jenn: Oh. Ewwww!

Me: You didn’t say “Ewwww” about condoms, but you did about hand wipes?

Jenn: Think about it. They came with her panties and a boob shot of her.

Me: Ewwwwww!

They make nice hats too. At the end of the set, Heaven Lee tossed the prize packages into the audience, and Jeen and I caught one each. The prize packs contained the panties that Heaven Lee stripped off during the set, and we found that they made excellent headgear.

After a gig, there’s nothing like chilling out with your friends.

Poses, everyone!

Tina’s gloves, specially designed for guitar-playin’ and groupie-spankin’. Nice fishnets, girl, but perhaps you should switch to a less watery, less proletarian beer.

Merkury Burn are Toronto’s Goth rock darlings, and they’ve got a great sound. They came on after Fresh Meat, and I got a couple of shots of them…

Merkury Burn get their kink on. All real rock and roll acts involve at least one crotch-grabbing per gig. The riding crop is a bonus.

“I’m gonna dress you up in my love…” Merkury Burn opened with a gothed-out, glammed out cover of Madonna’s Dress You Up.

Later that evening, Abs and Fase (I believe that was their name) came on with the hip-hop act. They’re really good!

Boo-yah! If there’s one thing that Toronto has in abundance, it’s cute girls who can rap.

Double boo-yah! For one number, Sunny D joined the rap, doubling the cute rapper girl factor. Say, do you need an accordion player who knows his blues scales really well?

All in all, a silly evening.

Joey deVilla