Saturday night was fashion night in T.O. as ACT's Fashion Cares fundraising event took the mainstage at the Convention Centre.

The theme this year had western/cowboy styles crossing with east Indian/Bollywood themes and as such, thousands poured into the south building donning outfits I could only describe as a mash up between old cowboy halloween costumes and faux east Indian do-it-yourself home mendhi kit designs. Ridiculous, yes, but the best dressed were indeed those that didn't take themslves TOO seriously, so the ridiculous worked quite well.

Fashion may have been the focus of this party, but as anyone in attendance can attest to, music is really what made the evening.

Scheduled performers such as Jann Arden, Brazilian Girls (amazing!) and Panjabi Hit Squad (there's some contrast) delivered flawless good tunes as expected, but it was the solo stylings of Feist that delivered a little shock and awe to the crowd.

As she appeared on stage, with the sole accompaniment of her electric guitar (unlike any other performer that night) the audience buzzed with people asking, 'who's Feist?', 'have you ever heard of this girl?', 'who is this?', etc. Sure, there were a lot of international folks there, but even the locals seemed clueless, so it was really up to Feist to prove herself... and so she did. Whether grooving along with her guitar or diving into an acapella break in which she never lost track of that perfect pitch, our Canadian girl sent the crowd into a frenzy of applause.

There was still a huge surprise in the bag though.

Across the pond from Germany, and having just stepped off the stage at Massey Hall the same evening, Erasure closed the night in grand fashion. The audience (well versed in 80's electropop) was elated. I'm not saying that people got up out of their seats in their excitement or anything, no no, I'm saying that they got up, freaked out, dropped their cowboy hats and RUSHED the stage.

Security scrambled, but some semblance of order was maintained, and people just crowded around the stage/catwalk to dance and sing along (not to mention shout "ANDY I LOVE YOU!!").

Vince Clarke and Andy Bell, who also dressed for the occasion, weren't feeling snobby either... they made no effort to push new material for this performance, good as it might have been. It was all classic hits (probably about 5 songs, too) that kept the crowd dancing til finally they said their thank you's, there was still much dancing and shouting, and then the lights came up.

End Scene.