Ask anyone who's been around the Toronto music scene for more than 10 years and they'll tell you that things are very different than they use to be. Monthly dance parties and off-the-radar indie shows are the norm. The sheer volume of bands, good bad and otherwise, being cultivated in this city is growing every day. It used to be that there weren't enough fans to support indie shows, where these days a band can play a word-of-mouth-only house party and pack it full of dancing, crazy, sweaty music lovers. Toronto is ever changing, and so is this scene. One of the best surprises of 2004 was a weekly pay-what-you-can indie rock night called Pitter Patter, which started at the Poor Alex and has just moved to O'Grady's at College and McCaul and expanded to two nights a week, Thursdays and Fridays. Ryan McLaren sat down with founder and mastermind Keith Hamilton to get the details of Pitter Patter's past, present, and future.

When did Pitter Patter start?

The first Pitter Patter was Oct 15th/04 with Anagram, Florida Evans and the Piney Wolves.

How did it start?

I was having a discussion with my friend Nevin from Debaser about finding a place that would let me book more than the one show a month I had been doing for Suck My Disc records. He mentioned his friend Reuben was very likely looking for some help with the Poor Alex Cabaret. I cold called Reuben and made it happen pretty quick. I put together my first show at the Alex two days later. I followed with three relatively poorly attended shows before getting the chance to help out Eric Warner with a couple of excellent gigs. The staff then saw the potential for the venue and continued to let me book. About a month later I felt it was time to make it a weekly event and started Pitter Patter Nights.

What was your motivation? What was the philosophy behind it? Was there one?

Pitter Patter is the sound of children's feet moving... I figured that was a good philosophy... break down the shy concert goers and get the fans dancing! I wanted to start a weekly event that complemented the Wavelength series without trying to encroach on its success. Lots of bands that don't get the chance to play Wavelength still deserve a chance to be noticed, and I was trying to help in this way.

What are your thoughts on what's going on in Toronto right now? Where do you think it's going?

Honestly, there's way too many awesome bands in Toronto, and way too many brilliant bands coming through Toronto, so it's very tough to break in. There's a dozen good shows a week and only a couple hundred real concert goers, who, with Toronto rent prices, can only afford to go out to so many rock shows in one week. The end result is good for fans and bad for bands... you almost can't miss catching a good show when you go out, and you're very likely to get an intimate experience with these bands because the fans are so
spread out between shows.

You recently took some time off -- I think it was a month, right? -- and made some changes. Aside from the obvious change of venue, what's going on with PP behind the curtain?

I took about three weeks off because the venue was rented out by the Fringe Festival. Other than the venue change, I've talked to a few friends about coming on board to share some of the work load with booking and promoting and media contacts. This will be taking place more after the first year is complete. The needed help was really becoming apparent as I also play in a few gigging bands and work full time on top of this, so existence for me seems pretty surreal. I usually live on three or four hours sleep. I'm pretty frickin' tired.

Why O'Grady's? It's not really "on the map" in terms of ordinary music venues. How did you end up getting two days a week there?

The Poor Alex got sold. Out of my hands completely. I wouldn't have left if I didn't have to. O'Gradys had come to me earlier to try to sway me to promote for them. I didn't have a need or desire to move. When they found out the Alex was sold they came to me
again. I had shows booked, and my goal was zero down time and no lost shows. When I talked to the venue, they seemed more interested in supporting and developing the evening with me than the owners of the Alex did, so I figured it was a bit of a win-win situation. It's a bigger room, a better PA, a more central location, way better drink pricing and they serve food too. They really wanted me to do Fridays and Saturdays, but most of my pre-booked shows were on Thursdays, so when the rest of my Thursdays are finished we'll move to Fridays and Saturdays.

So what's the future? Where are you going with all this? Do you have any specific goals in mind?

I guess the goal is to get people interested in coming out so that we can keep things moving... pitter patter...