Another Canadian Music Week has passed for this year, and as my wristband & limited edition-CMW-under-eye-bags fade away, life moves onto next week’s parties. Toronto’s awesome indie DIY party spirit unfolded in perfect form Saturday night, right in the middle of CMW 2012.

Brock McLaughlin, Manager of recently signed Toronto up & comers NIXON (formerly Tiny Danza), and man-about town manhandled CMW by it’s drumsticks & with partners Anthony Dell’orso and Sarah Riches threw a sorta-secret after-party house-party thing at a mansion near King & Spadina to celebrate it all. Word spread mainly through word of mouth starting a month prior, and band lineup was kept secret up until the night of, no exclusive guestlists or trending hashtag contests. Earlier that day Brock had his hands full with his CMW day party & 6 band showcase in collaboration with MUSI Artist Development “Death In The Afternoon” held at new King West bistro pub Sazerac Lounge.

So let’s refer to this party as Death At 4am, I guess. A lineup of 4 bands fresh from their official CMW performances took the stage (re: basement lair) between 12am-6am with live sets from Tupelo Honey, Zoo Lion, The Manvils and Sherman Downey. In between, we did shots of Jager, partook in scenester networking, discussed gigolos vs. juggalos and payed a visit to the back alley or what one guy called “VIP Bathroom Area.”

Bouncing around to Zoo Lion’s cover of Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love, I slid down the stairs into a basement concert zone with sultry red & black lighting, cute rocker indie dudes dotting the landscape in their plaid and leather, and the smell of feet and beer. What else would you expect? A half-body plastic lady mannequin took her turn being danced with. Tweets from ringmaster @brockmclaughlin sum it up: “Bouncers, booze, bands from across Canada, girls here, we having one Hell of an after party” and “I feel like stifler when he threw that house party in American pie”.

Now, onto Death on a Sunday, Monday and maybe even Tuesday. Long live DIY real-shizz parties! 

~ Becca Lemire, photos by Brock McLaughlin and Becca Lemire