In Sync, Moving Together: TD Amplify Episode 2
Photo credit: Daman Singh
From the outset of TD Amplify’s program Episode 2 of their series, the stage at Werklund Centre felt transformed. A wash of saturated reds, greens, and blues bathed the room while (un)decided — the eight-piece R&B/neo-soul collective — settled into groove-heavy warmups that blurred rehearsal and performance. There was confetti that fluttered. A trumpet gleamed under the lights. Introspective moments like trumpet-player Jesse Natasha and Matthew Mooney sitting back-to-back on the floor, preparing for confession, and using as much space provided for expression as they could.
Poet, Matthew Mooney, was a particular highlight, opening the night from the balcony as he burst into word, making the entire room his stage. The Scottish poet carries himself like a modern-day bard — equal parts pub raconteur and Shakespearean tragedian. His poem “Cozy” landed early and lingered long after. As he recited a litany of the defining characteristics of love and comfort, Gisele Ardosa moved just across from him, almost within reach but never quite touching. The tension was exquisite. (un)decided underscored the scene with slow-burning soul — keys swelling, harmonies rising. The result felt cinematic, as though we were watching longing materialize in three dimensions.
Photo credit: Daman Singh
Mooney’s “21%” shifted the mood without losing intensity. Wry and ferocious, the piece examined immigrant identity and the contradictions of Scottish heritage — “tell me of your dreams to escape and not longing to go back,” he demanded, reckoning with violence, religion, and the uneasy inheritance of the past. The audience responded in murmurs, snaps, and the kind of attentive silence that only happens when a room feels collectively seen. “Alice,” drifted somewhere between fable and confession, threading imagination into autobiography.
If Mooney grounded the evening in language, (un)decided propelled it skyward. Vocalist Jon Itamah’s performance of “Home Is Where the Heart Is” was another highlight, his voice rich and searching as he navigated questions of time, place, and belonging, ending the number honouring his endurance — “maybe the struggle is what gave me the crown.” The band’s elasticity shone brightest in the free jazz passages as well — trumpet lines spiralling, percussion loosening its grip on structure — while Gisele answered with tap rhythms that ricocheted across the stage. Her movement carries a quiet fire: shoulders trembling, wrists carving air, feet punctuating silence. She embodied both fragility and force.
Photo credit: Daman Singh
What made Episode 2 truly resonate was its refusal to silo disciplines. Poetry bled into jazz; jazz into tap; tap into call-and-response harmonies that turned the theatre into something closer to a house party. Claps and snaps erupted organically. Laughter threaded through the heavier themes. The line between performer and audience softened.
DJ toshiinlove took the decks for the afterparty and almost instantly, the energy surged beyond the dancefloor. People crowded toward the stage, not tentatively, but hungrily ready to sweat and celebrate, like a release valve opening. TD Amplify: Episode 2 wasn’t just a showcase. It was a reminder that collaboration, at its best, doesn’t simply entertain — it invites us to move closer, to listen harder, and to dance like we belong.
Photo credit: Daman Singh
