NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2026
They say that timing is everything. Without hindsight, 2019 would have seemed like a great time to start a band and release a record. Oops. The five college friends from Salt Lake City, Utah couldn’t have known. It wouldn’t be until 2021 before the final lineup would be able to tour and put together their debut studio album “The Comedown”. Everything gets accelerated during and after Covid and it’s hard to believe that those five friends are now approaching thirty! With lead vocalist/guitarist Oliver Martin, guitarist Paul Colgan, bassist Matt Monosson, keyboardist David Macey, and drummer Quinn Casper in place, they released their latest record In Another Life only two weeks ago and have embarked on a headlining tour across North America to bring their music and messages to fans, old and new. On Tuesday, April 14th, they stopped at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto.
LA-based singer/songwriter Annika Wells started our musical journey this evening. Turns out she’s been a pretty prolific songwriter, collaborating with the likes of BTS, the Jonas Brothers, and Sabrina Carpenter. After releasing several singles last year, she released her second EP Into the Undergrowth this January. Dressed in striped overalls and accompanied by Connor McCoy (could have sworn she said Connor McLeod and was going to yell “There Can Be Only One!!) on guitar and India Pascucci on drums, she gave us what could possibly be the most interesting song titles ever, starting with “Fckboys”! Others include “Snot”, “Bathwater”, and “Fuck Being Sober”! Do these titles give you an indication that the lyrics to these songs are very personal and based on her experiences? It was clear that many in the audience were Annika fans, singing along to her songs. One superfan even flew into the city just for this show, gifting her a bag of Buc-ee’s Mini Gummi Butterflies! We know he flew in because there are no Buc-ee’s outside of the southern United States. Besides having a truly lovely voice, Wells is quite an entertaining storyteller, recounting getting drunk and being offered mushrooms by a guy she just met, who would later become her husband! A really fun set and I would really love to see and hear more from her moving forward.
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Krooked Kings started their set with “Telephobia”, also the first track off their latest album, which talks about living in our strange digital world. They dragged us further down into this depressing world with “Headhunter” from 2024’s Shiver. It probably makes sense why we didn’t see a lot of smiles from the band members early on, even though the audience was bouncing and dancing along. The band itself kept things pretty simple, with really not much in the way of chatter. Drummer Quinn Casper was probably the most active until lead singer Oliver Martin started to really get into it and was dancing around.
Focused on their latest record, Krooked Kings played seven out the ten tracks from that record in a very satisfying nineteen song set. After playing the Velvet Underground (just a few blocks away) the last time they were in town, and given the size of the crowd at the Horseshoe Tavern, I would hope they upgrade to a larger venue the next time around.
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