Music

We watched Hayden play a record release show inside a famous Toronto deli

by Cam Lindsay

A record release party is often the time for an artist to do something a little special. And for Toronto’s Hayden, that meant playing some shows in some of his hometown’s coziest eateries to plug his new album, Hey Love. Because really, why aren’t we stuffing our faces more at concerts? This is not a rhetorical question. I actually want to know why.

Anyway, this week the brooding singer-songwriter is hosting a series of shows called “Hayden’s Diner,” in which the audience can choose his set lists by request through a special “song menu.” And yes, food is available during the performance. The first show happened last night at Caplansky’s, a cozy, Guy Fieri-approved delicatessen on College Street, which Hayden acknowledged as his and probably everyone’s “first [musical] deli experience.”

The largest venue of the three nights and the only one to include his full band, Caplansky’s took no time to fill. I secured a spot against a refrigerated glass display case of what I think was pastrami, which was fitting, as Hayden announced the show was unofficially titled, “Pastrami and Tears.” Immediately he rebelled against the menu idea, starting with “one no one asked for,” the title track to his new LP. But he welcomed the menu requests once he broke out his Costco reading glasses.

Though he’s often known as a quiet singer-songwriter, Hayden and his band came closing to kicking out an actual jam with “The Hazards of Sitting Beneath Palm Trees” and recent single “Nowhere We Cannot Go.” My plug-less ears even began to ring. I was grateful then when he did a couple on his own. Channeling “vintage Hayden” (read: him and his acoustic guitar), he struggled to remember “I Should Have Been.” But thanks to modern technology, a helpful onlooker Googled and called out the lyrics to him, but at that point he had already decided to abort.

The mild chaos of a flubbed song opened the floor up to yelling out requests, which he quickly kiboshed. This didn’t stop someone from calling out for early cut and non-menu item “In September.” To which he bashfully admitted, “I don’t have the right guitar or voice for that song.” He did sandwich (pun intended) golden oldie “Trees Lounge,” though, in between “Hollywood Ending” and closer “Dynamite Walls.” He also screwed up that one up, and someone amusingly recommended pulling up the lyrics on Google, but Hayden quickly regained composure and smoothly ended what might possibly be the first ever deli-hosted concert by a guy from Thornhill named Hayden to ever go down in downtown Toronto.