I loved the live set played by The Strumbellas Thursday night at Rockwood Music Hall. Big, buoyant songs played and sung with ensemble choruses amid loads of positive energy. Equally enjoyable was talking with the band afterwards, chatting with Darryl James (bass), Dave Ritter (keys), and Isabel Ritchie (violin). Rounding out the six-piece is Jon Hembrey (lead guitar), Jeremy Drury (drums), and Simon Ward (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, frontman). Like Derek Atkinson, lead singer of Loon Choir, another Ontario band I like a lot, Ward is a very expressive singer on stage, and interesting to watch, as you can’t be quite sure sort of swooping or expansive gesture he might strike next. The Strumbellas have been together several years, so far putting out a total of three albums. They won a Juno Award in 2014, for “We Still Move on Dance Floors,” their most recent release. Darryl told me that for a long time they only played in Toronto, which is home base, seizing every opportunity that they could find to play in front of people, but not touring much. Then, they began touring in Canada a couple years ago, with gigs in the US coming after that. All six members had a great time on stage, exuding a comfortability that put the good-sized weeknight crowd at ease and in the mood for fun. Here’s a video of one of my favorite songs of theirs, “Sailing,” followed by the rest of my pics and a Facebook post I put up right after the show.