Trust

If rave culture is enjoying a second coming like the music blogs say it is, Toronto-based goth-wave 2.0 dance kids Trust have most definitely got in on the resurrection. The smoke machine/rainbow-coloured strobe light combination managed to strike a balance of really frightening and really fun, which is essentially what a midnight dance party should be but seldom is. Lead singer Robert Alfons's stage presence is so Thom Yorke-meets-Ian Curtis (hands clutching microphone, bad posture, occasional flailing) that one is left questioning how much of his persona is real vs. an impersonation of obvious musical influences, but who cares. What matters is that at Pop's Arts and Crafts showcase, Trust (who were recently signed to the Canadian indie label) took on a handful of genres, from dance to post-punk to gothy techno, threw in a nightclub aesthetic and secured themselves a place in a reinvigorated realm of dance music.