I certainly am a fan of Tex-Mex. Well, Tex-Mex food anyway. Last week I was at Rancho Relaxo for an evening of actual bona-fide indie music and had the pleasure of seeing the Rural Alberta Advantage, a Toronto-based band whose music captures the heartbreak and isolation of growing up in the Prairies (notably, frontman Paul Banwatt actually is from Alberta....not just appropriating the experience in order to have an indie edge). At times Banwatt's voice channels that of Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Magnum to the point that I forget who I'm listening to. By no means do I find that to be a bad thing, however. Following the show, I opted to gambol down College Street and have a Tex-Mex nightcap (three pitchers and veggie nachos) at Sneaky Dee's. If there was a Tex-Mex streetfight between the primary two Tex-Mex/Concert venue contenders in Toronto (involving secret moves like the enchilada death-ray), Sneaky Dee's would reign victorious and be awarded a die-cast figurine of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
