AUGUST KNIGHT PRESENTS TORONTO ROCKS
@ THE EL MOCAMBO, TORONTO
OCTOBER 14, 2025
Call it an installation. Call it a concert. Call it convergence. Whatever you call it, it was beautiful. In a stunning show of support for (and from) the music community, a number of Toronto scene mainstays and bona fide living legends descended upon the El Mocambo for a very special night.
Dubbed “Toronto Rocks: Art & Music Collide at the Legendary El Mocambo”, it was an event born of passion and necessity. Toronto musician and visual artist August Knight created over 30 engraved art portraits for his Eternal Symbols series, which features icons such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and Gordon Lightfoot. As well, the likes of Toronto music stalwarts such as John Borra, Sandra Bouza, David Celia and Tim Bovaconti, and many others are also honoured. Touchingly, Knight also pays posthumous tribute to Dallas Good and Nash the Slash.
Knight’s portrait project began when he found himself at odds due to unemployment. He explains, “I started doing a couple of portraits of some friends, because I hadn’t worked in about a year, so I needed to feel justified. I had to feel like I had something to do with my life. So, I created a couple of portraits, and then it turned into more and more, and then the El Mocambo called up and said they were very interested in hosting an installation. Once that came through, I decided to put on a show. It’s my way of giving back to the community of Toronto musicians. These are a lot of the guys who inspired me, and still inspire me, so I’m proud to host this.”
In a word, Knight’s portrait engravings are impressive. They began their lives organically as sketches and then were converted to digital format for refining and enhancing. Finally, they were rendered in wood using a laser. Speaking about how the process starts with the organic, goes to digital, then back to organic again, Knight explains, “I met this woodworker in Hamilton, Wilma Nardone, who introduced me to the essence of wood. So, I could actually burn the energy of these artists into the wood itself. Then it was like, ‘Okay, now I’ve got something cool.’ So, the wood was really a big part of it.”
Knight reached out to many Toronto musicians, asking for permission to create their portraits. If the answer was “yes,” his next question was, would they like to play at the installation’s opening. To his surprise, over 90 per cent of the artists agreed to play, which resulted in a stellar lineup at the Elmo. With a list of performers that included Danny Marks, Paul Reddick, Kathryn Rose, Andrea Ramolo, Jerry Leger, Jennifer Foster, Stephen Stanley & Chris Bennett (and more), there was plenty of variety and musical magic. Toronto music scene icon (and original Blue Rodeo drummer) Cleave Anderson backed many of the artists in the first set, and there was a killer house band of Arie Papernick (guitar), Bill Evans (keys), Brian Cruickshank (drums), and Dave Freeman (bass), that kept things rocking through much of the evening.
Introducing the proceedings, El Mocambo Executive Director Mike Chalut praised Knight and the community, saying, “This art installation not only celebrates the rock history and rock legends of the Toronto rock scene, but it really showcases and puts a personality on how hard Toronto rockers work, and how Toronto rockers have changed the music scene internationally. I have to tell you, August Knight captured every single moment through his artwork.”
The acts rolled out smoothly throughout the night. For the most part, an artist would take the stage to perform a couple of songs, before bringing up the next act to perform a duet ‘tweener’ tune before the next artist’s set. It was a winning format that made things flow nicely.
With such a stellar assembly of talented folks, we cannot mention all of the amazing moments that were witnessed by the crowd. Still, some standouts included the vocal artistry of Kathryn Rose on “Deep Space Satellite,” the passion of Stephen Stanley with Chris Bennett on the sweet, sad “Under the Mynah Bird,” and Sandra Bouza’s raw vocal power on her song “Sit By the Fire.”
Other notable spots included Jerry Leger’s and Tim Bovaconti’s shared set, Danny Marks’ nostalgic trip of 1960s pop songs, some brilliant blues-rock guitar hero moments from David Celia (‘She’s A Waterfall”), and absolutely incendiary performances by blues harpist Paul Reddick, and guitarist Sil Simone. For his part, August Knight turned in excellent performances of “Arizona Rain” and “Dusty Boxcar Waltz.” Truly, all of the music was incredible.
Performers told personal stories of their experiences playing music in Toronto, giving respect and thanks to the venues and fans for their support, and congratulations to August Knight on his art installation. It was a true community celebration, and there was a lot of love in the room.
As for the future of August Knight’s portrait gallery installation, he believes that it will be at the El Mocambo for a while. “They don’t really want to give it up,” he laughs. Still, the project might have some ‘legs’, as they say. Knight has an idea to expand it, saying, ” Right now, I think Toronto Rocks is Toronto-centric, but I started just doing Eternal Symbols, where I had iconic Canadians, like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot. So, I was kind of thinking of doing something like that, using the Eternal Symbols, and then touring each city, and highlighting the musicians in each city.”
Since his work sprung from his love of music and love of community, Knight has some practical advice for fans, for keeping music communities alive, saying “The music industry is really tough right now. A lot of musicians are only making twelve bucks a month on Spotify. So, if you can get out, and see live bands, pay your money, buy the t-shirts, buy the swag, buy their CDs, do whatever you can to support it.”
Artists
KC Carlisle (Evil Elvis)
Lucas Stagg & Chris Staig
Tim Bovaconti
Jerry Leger
David Celia
Jennifer Foster
Stephen Stanley & Chris Bennett
Kathryn Rose with Thomas Ryder Payne
Danny Marks
August Knight
Andrea Ramolo
Paul Reddick
Sil Simone
James Clark with Tom Gibson
Sandra Bouza
John Borra
Stephen Court
Megan Parnell (Bywater Call)
Plus:
Cleave Anderson (drums)
Joey Greco (djembe)
House Band:
Bill Evans (keys)
Brian Cruickshank (drums)
Dave Freeman (bass)
Arie Papernick (guitar)
(Photography by Stephen Lussier)
Art Gallery Photos
Live Performance Photos
August Knight Links
