TIFF party talk: (Musical) celeb-spotting at the Roosevelt Room
One of our favourite spots for celeb-spotting at this year’s TIFF was the Roosevelt Room. For the fest, the Adelaide St. club, Rock-it Promotions and Arts & Crafts Records put on a three-night music festival showcasing some of Canada’s happening-est artists. The point was to invite visiting VIPs of the TV and movie biz to peruse Canadian music and to maybe, just maybe use some of their music in upcoming films. Consider it an audition.
We saw Stars and Basia Bulat on Monday night and we’re still kicking ourselves for checking out another rooftop party prior to the Roosevelt, thus missing one of our favourite, impossible-to-catch-live artists Coeur de Pirate.
While we were busy seeing Abigail Breslin sing at the Horseshoe on Tuesday night, that same evening, City and Colour, Hawksley Workman and Tokyo Police Club played the showcase. Wednesday night saw Toronto band Born Ruffians, Beast, Zeus and the Tragically Hip lead singer Gord Downie perform. While the Roosevelt Room doesn’t often play host to such gigs, the hors d’oeuvres floating around the room were a nice touch–something that would never fly at the city’s dingier watering holes. Leslie Feist was there on Monday, and on Wednesday I spied Jian Ghomeshi, Strombo, Natalie Brown (who has just been everywhere this week) and even Nikita‘s Shane West out of the corner of my eye.
On top of the music showcase, the Roosevelt Room also played host to a handful of film parties, which saw M.I.A., Edward Norton, Robert De Niro and Milla Jovovich stopping by.
