If you haven’t heard of Toronto’s own Cai.ro yet, what are you doing with your live music-going self?? Watching hot hard rock bands in Kensington? Me too. But in all musical seriousness, you should be having your hearts stolen and earholes rocked by this newish indie band, who arrived on the T.O. scene about a year ago.

Thursday night they opened for fellow indie rockers, Crowns for Convoy, at intimate and interactive venue, C’est What with a full 7 song -setlist. All eyes were on lead singer, Nate Daniels as he opened with “Vampyre”; an eerily catchy 3 minutes of dreamy reverb (check it and other songs off the band’s EP here: http://www.myspace.com/cai.ro)

They followed up with “Render”, a ballady tune, led by strong sultry strings c/o Caitlyn, the band’s cool violinist, and soft drum-kit cymbals c/o Matt, the easy-on-the-eyes-guy behind drums. Nate gently wailed over the sound of these awesome instruments, pairing them perfectly with vulnerable lyrics, telling the tale of reluctantly being in love (I think). I took a quick glance around the pub during this number, and it was clear the audience was just a little bit more than captivated… read: mesmerized, trance-like stares to the front of the stage. My friend’s iPhone lit up during “Render” and he didn’t even CHECK IT. That’s how good it was. Uninterrupted attention, y’all.

“All These Colours” was up next, making everyone in the pub bob their head along in tune or do a shoulder sway, to and fro. If you were there, and did not get into this song in any way, shame on you. Your lack of rhythm and recognition of good music is disappointing. Kidding, I digress. Cai.ro’s bassist Dante, accompanied Nate’s emotional vocal lead here, making for a pretty rad combo of soulful sounds. This is the type of song that could easily make it’s way onto the radio, Sirus, whatever, perhaps pushing this band into mainstream territory. I hate to compare but, less a few string sections and Montrealers (although Nate did live in MTL a few years ago… but no accent, and he’s native to BC, so doesn’t count) and this band is equivalent to the talents of the multi-dimensional Arcade Fire. And by multi-dimensional, I mean super talented and interesting to listen to.

Let the motor run, indeed.

Lookout for Cai.ro around town at Canadian Music Week in March and NXNE in June.