On Sept. 26, Toronto’s Trash Panda Brass busked and busted it down at the corner of John and Patrick Streets to bring queer joy to the annual Skeleton Park Block Party.
Formed in 2022 by University of Toronto and Humber Polytechnic music students working together at bar and restaurant DROM Taberna, Trash Panda Brass began as a horn instrument frontline ensemble. Eventually, the band evolved into a pop-song playing street brass band who busk in public to spread queer joy.
Due to their formation, trombonist Bien Carandang arranges most of these covers himself.
“We have a very unique instrumentation. I don’t think you can go to the Hal Leonard site and find arrangements for two mellophones, two trombones, sousaphone, and kit,” Carandang said in an interview with The Journal.
Their fun afternoon performance started with Carly Rae Jepsen‘s “Call Me Maybe,” followed by a medley in honour of Dolly Parton, then queer anthems like Chappell Roan‘s “Good Luck, Babe!” and “Pink Pony Club.” The band’s exciting harmonies, call and response, and one-armed dance choreography energized the crowd.
“Above all else, we choose songs that we like to have fun [with],” Carandang said. “If we don’t get down with it, then we will not do it.”
Although Trash Panda Brass has previously rocked the Skeleton Park Arts Festival and TD Jazz Fest, their hearts belong with busking.
“When you’re busking around the street, there’s no stage, you’re just right there with everybody else. We wanted music that people would recognize and spoke to us,” mellophonist Illinca Stafie said in an interview with The Journal.
At first, performing in public spaces was simply the accessible, listenable, and relatable choice, but the streets became one of their favourite stages to perform on.
As the “polar opposite of a concert hall”, busking subverts classical performance conventions.
“We strip away all the common circumstances of the concert hall, and when you’re supposed to clap, and when you’re supposed to listen, and when you’re supposed to interact,” Stafie explained. “We’re literally on the same playing field.”
Throughout their performance, Trash Panda Brass taught the crowd dance moves to go along with their set, as well as the lyrics to their original number.
“Busking is such a fun experimental space above anything else. You can eat shit and it’s a totally, zero consequence space to do it,” Carandang told The Journal. “You can eat shit all over a melody and the girls will still love it because you’re still playing “Pink Pony Club” and they know what you’re trying to do.”
Trash Panda Brass performed in bright colours and played to each other’s strengths — whether that’s soloing or emceeing.
“For myself personally, doing low brass was a very male dominated space and very machismo,” Carandang explained. “That kind of made me feel super hindered, but existing and doing this band with a bunch of fellow queer people, and also more femme presenting people, where […] machismo isn’t necessarily an expectation upon us; we can exist as we are, helped a lot.”
For Trash Panda Brass, queer joy means having fun during their performances.
“The compliments we get most often are, ‘you look like you’re having fun on stage,’ and it’s because we are. We are friends outside of this band as well, and we enjoy each other’s presence, so it’s easy for us to enjoy each other, which then […] breaks that fourth wall and invites our audiences in,” Stafie explained.
However, not all neighborhoods are open to the band’s mission of amplifying queer joy through performance.
“It’s not always easy spreading queer joy. We’ve been called the f-slur on the street,” Stafie said.
“But we persevere!” Carandang added.
Nowadays, Trash Panda Brass is “booked and blessed,” but if fans are eager to hear them busk in Toronto, Stafie noted “Bloor Street and Brunswick, across from Future,” as one of the locations you can find them.
Tags
Live Music, Queer, Skeleton Park
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