Simone Denny

If you were in attendance at the Hard Luck Bar expecting to hear Toronto diva Simone Denny bust out some Love Inc. joints from her DJ Chris Shephard collaborative days — the ubiquitous '90s CanDance tracks like "You're A Superstar" or "Broken Bones" — you were out of luck. Denny is known for still performing those dance hits but on this night we got Denny's powerhouse vocals wrapped around bluesy soul and R&B songs. Billed as debuting new tracks from her forthcoming The Stereo Dynamite Sessions Vol. 1 release, Denny dropped a few covers along the short set. As each "I know this classic R&B/pop tune but what's it called again?" track blended into each other, it was apparent that Denny still has her trademark chops and can handle any genre thrown her way at this point. No techno joints on this night but a rather breezy, stripped-down performance from the Canadian music veteran.