First off I want to say this is definitely one of my favourite hangouts.

So this is how the night began, I found a key that most likely fell off someones bag. If you had lost a key and are looking for it I gave the ket to the doorman/security at the Horseshoe.

I walked in and looked at the man racking a new game at the red felted pool table. I thought that maybe, I should stop and drop a loonie to secure next game, I would also write my name on the blackboard (yes I still call the chalkboard a blackboard, school has branded that into my head).

“Nah, there might be some good music ahead”

Thank God I didn’t play because I caught the last song of a damn good vocalist and her ensemble. I would go on to tell you her voice is resembling heavens last angel, but her name is Angelina Mackinnon; I figured me using the word angel is tacky because it already is in her name. Go figure!

“If you were the guy on her kitchen floor…..”

That girl sends heart throbbing vibes down your spine, and if you want to hear a voice that wraps warm arms around you, I would check her out.

Now for the meat of my night, the whole reason I am at The Horseshoe. Dylan Hennessy.

Described as a one man army, Dylan takes musical ingenuity and applies technology. The first thing that comes to mind to most amateur musicians and performance based artists is that technology takes away from actual skills of musicians. For example, electronic music and DJ’s aren’t real musicians, after all they’re just sitting on a computer or searching through anothers hard work to play for you.

If you agree with the above statement, please stop reading and delete my existence from your mind.

I don’t need such cretins in my community.

Dylan really is a one man army, choosing from his arsenal of self created noises, from shredding on his guitar to beatboxing, he does it all. Recording samples of each and playing them in loops, gluing them together to compose his own songs on the fly.

That’s right, on the fly, that means he has to remember when to insert, stop, throw in a fill or even an entirely different lick. The wide array of sounds that are used by Dylan will leave you in awe, not even how he uses it; but what got me, was the way he connected with the crowd and got some definite crowd control.

He blew up the crowd with a Linkin Park song, knowing that Chester’s suicide has shook the entire music world, which I caught the end of it (I was drinking earlier at Wide Open, which has a funny name but another day) as I went to the washroom but I left before the song started; or else I would have waited

We own the mountain.

The crowd cheered for an encore, and Dylan Hennessy gave it to them, one they never expected.

Catch Dylan Hennessy this Saturday @ Cherry Cola’s (200 Bathurst St.)