The Beach Boys were in Toronto on Tuesday night, playing less the part of legendary rockers and more the role of ringleaders in an 11,000-person sing-along. The crowd on hand at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, most of whom had clearly grown up on the band, happily served as back-up vocalists, lending their voices to an anthology of Beach Boy classics.

The 48-song set contrasted sharply with much of the live music blasting across Toronto on account of last week’s North by Northeast festival. Where NXNE offered a wide variety of raw, boundary-pushing acts, The Beach Boys were nothing if not safe, reliable and familiar.

Even with Brian Wilson back in tow for the current tour, the group didn’t break from its deep roster of crowd pleasers (the only exception was a post-intermission playing of new single “That’s Why God Made the Radio”). “Good Vibrations,” “California Girls” and “Help Me Rhonda” all got the crowd out of its seats before a show-closing rendition of “Surfin’ USA” wrapped up the performance on an energetic – albeit predictable – high.

The fans on hand played their role as well. On top of the sing-along participation, the colorful Hawaiian shirts, flowing sundresses and beach balls made for an unmistakably summery atmosphere (the clear, balmy weather certainly helped).

As with any Beach Boys concert, there was no shortage of bright colors on display, but also plenty of gray (which is to be expected for a band that has been performing for 50 years, with a similarly-aged fan base).

Instead of being the unspoken elephant in the room, the senior status of the “Boys” was a point of humour throughout the night: at one point, vocalist Mike Love announced that it was “time for an intermission followed by a nap.”

Despite the jokes, age simply wasn’t a factor on this night. The band wasn’t exactly bouncing around on stage alongside their back-up musicians, but then again, that wasn’t their style back in the ‘60s, either.

For the long-time fans on hand, there were no surprises or gimmicks — just the easy-listening music they came for.

With bands such as Wintersleep, Constantines and Fleet Foxes getting regular radio play, it comes as no surprise that Toronto-based folk/indie-rock band The Wooden Sky has an ever-growing fan base. With an impressive band roster, whose current and former members include musicians from Ohbijou, Timber Timbre, The Rural Alberta Advantage, Forest City Lovers and The Mars Volta, we admittedly hold The Wooden Sky to a higher standard. And the recent release of their third album, Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun, is seriously satisfying.

Lead singer Gavin Gardiner delivers his hallmark lonesome and gritty vocals, balanced by orchestral explosions — the result of more experimentation on the new record. Having just returned home to Toronto from his North America tour, Gardiner talks songwriting in a cottage up north and why Toronto's local bands are one big happy family.

The Wooden Sky started out as a school project, right? How did that happen?
Yeah, it did. I've always played in bands since I was in junior high. I moved to Toronto for school when I was 18 and I had to record a bunch of songs, I got my friend to play the drums on it, we put out a little EP and had a lot of fun doing it, so we kept doing it. And that was sort of another band that transformed itself into The Wooden Sky.  

There's a lot of range, from really sad, sappy songs to more upbeat folk rock. Is hard to balance your songwriting?
It's not really hard to balance the songwriting aspect of it — it allows freedom to do more than a form-specific thing. I think it would get boring. The hardest part is to decide whether a record should lean one way or the other. How consistent it should be. I mean, all of my favourite records are not consistent. That's what I want to make in terms of records, like it's all I want to listen to.

Tell us about the new album. Stylistically, it seems more diverse from your previous two.
Yeah it is, and I think a lot of that was because of circumstance. We had been pushing ourselves to try and write in different ways. The record before, we spent some time just working as a full band trying to write the songs, and we did that with this record too. We went to a cottage up north and wrote some songs. But I was also very excited to try demoing songs to see if I could work on them another way, to bring a different energy to the songs. So to answer your question there: not really [laughs]. Approach it differently? We weren't as prepared going into the studio, which meant we needed a lot more time to experiment, and the songs have changed pretty drastically since we first recorded them.

Who were you listening to when you were recording it?
I kind of got obsessed with Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers around that time. And Bill Callahan. Some people tell me it's a pretty "mellow" record, and I don't really find it that mellow, but that was kind of the goal. A lot of the times I find that I do get to listen to music during quiet times at home. I think in the world of vans, it's so hectic when you get home, you just want to go into a shell and put on your favourite record, you know? For me, that became Bill Callahan, especially Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle. I just listened to that record so much. That became the approach we took with this new album, which I think scared our record label [laughs].

With bands like Wintersleep and Fleet Foxes getting more mainstream play, is there room for your genre of music?
I don't know, it's funny you mentioned them, I'm in the kitchen and we were just having some random chat about who used to play in Wintersleep. Is the world ready for that? I'd like to think that that could happen, I'm also not super concerned about it. It seems like our fan base is growing steadily, I guess I would not shy away from that kind of exposure because of what that could bring. But yeah, hopefully!

What's it like working with members from The Rural Alberta Advantage, Forest City Lovers, Ohbijou (and I think I saw your violinist playing with Dusted the other night)?
Seems like that could be one big happy family, yeah. It's a natural thing to happen, when people are in a similar situation. I also feel lucky to have such talented friends, you know? Like, Casey [Mecija] from Ohbijou was just texting me: "I need a place to practice," and we have a garage we use. And she was so generous, she has a house in Bellwoods, and they rent it out for recording those Friends in Bellwoods albums. It's such a special place that they used to really foster that community.

What's next for you guys?
We're going back on tour in the States in August for a couple of weeks. And then we're flying to Europe.

Does folk music have a big following in Europe?
Every time we've been over there it's been really well-received. There's a different attitude for live music, both times we've been over it's been great so we're excited to go back.

We know all about throwing shade at political rallies, but throwing punches? That’s hardcore. And the guy on the receiving end is just so cool about it. He’s all like, “Give it to me.” Somebody probably said, “Dude, no one’s gonna to show up at the rally,” and he said, “Don't worry about it” and then orchestrated the whole thing just to grab some attention. That’s really taking one for the team.