Sackville, New Brunswick band Partner lit up the Koop stage at this year's Riverfest Elora with their high energy, fun and humorous tunes. I've seen the band twice before - pics from The Garrison and Silver Dollar Room can be seen here and here - and wouldn't have missed their set.
They opened with a cover of AC/DC's "Long Way to the Top" and proceeded to blow our minds with their original tunes. All this from a band that has only recently, on September 8 to be precise, put out an album. It's called In Search of Lost Time and you can grab it at their Bandcamp.
I highly, highly recommend this band. They've got great tunes, great presence and you won't wipe the smile off of their faces or your own.
Polaris Prize the Band played a really fun set of jam-worthy classic cover tunes with amazing groove and skill in the Koop tent at Riverfest Elora. Their set was solid, with classic songs from Elvis Costello, Jimi Hendrix, Tom Waits and Stevie Wonder, punctuated by the rousing singalong in Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping". I loved the tight rhythm section, the solid guitar playing, great vocals and, of course, the fantastic horn section. It was a fun dust-off of classics that the crowd thoroughly enjoyed.
I was just left with one lingering question: What's with the name? Maybe someone can clue me in. The bio says that the 10-piece band is made up of "Juno Award-winning Sisters Euclid with the explosive Heavyweights Brass Band, topped off by soul singer deluxe, Christopher Rouse." No mention of the Polaris Prize anywhere.
Have they all been on Polaris Prize nominated albums? Are they taking a poke at the Polaris Prize? They seem to be a band with a name invoking a current, cross-genre, sales-agnostic, innovative music award while performing classic rock and R&B. The newest song they played was Chumbawamba’s 1997 hit, “Tubthumping.”. That newest song came out a full 9 years before the Polaris Prize began issuing it’s award.
While awesome and entertaining, and the band is certainly populated with accomplished musicians, the music the band played is by artists who are the great-grandfathers of the Polaris generation of artists. Counterpoint perhaps? A grumpy dig at new music? "There's no good music anymore!"? If it's the latter, and based on a sarcastic comment by Kevin Breit in the video below, I think it is, I have to say it's very unfortunate and a negative premise to base your band's image on. Why not take a positive view of what you're doing versus insulting something that you're not? Of course, maybe I've got it all wrong...
Wax Mannequin was part of the Saturday lineup on the Riverfest Elora Wax on Wheels stage. He added dark, acoustic, folk, and whimsical elements to the line-up.
Helena Deland and her band appeared on the Wax on Wheels stage at this year's Riverfest Elora. Her mellow, contemplative and emotional tunes were a great addition to the Saturday line-up.
Thirteen years after the release of Sordid Fiction, Lowest of the Low are back with a new album called Do The Right Now. The release of new Lowest of the Low music is reason to celebrate, and a completely sold-out crowd gathered at The Danforth Music Hall to celebrate The Low's music on Saturday night.
We got a full gamut of Low songs starting with the opening track off of Do The Right Now, "Powerlines", all the way back to songs from pre-Low band Popular Front, to the closing tune of the second encore, "Rosy and Grey" from the band's debut, Shakespeare My Butt. The band, comprised of bandmates-since-1983 Ron Hawkins on vocals and guitar, David Alexander on drums and Lawrence Nichols on harmonica, vocals, acoustic guitar and keyboards, plus Derrick Brady on bass and Michael McKenzie on guitar, played superbly and sounded awesome. In short, the songs, the band and the crowd came together for a fantastic night.
Ron gave us some great tidbits on the songs on the new album, including the fact that he felt "Gerona Train" should have been on Shakespeare My Butt, that new track "Immortal" is a conversation between present-day Ron and his 25-year-old self, and that "Something To Believe In" is an old tune from Ron's pre-Low band Popular Front. The new album is as solid as you'd expect and the new songs fit right in alongside the classics. It won't be long before we've learned the words and will be shouting them along. I liked the little details, like the new "More Art Less Bullshit" sticker on Ron's Tele. That's a sentiment that's always been true, but we might not have needed the reminder more than we have in recent times.
I've never been shy about saying that I'm a huge Lowest of the Low and Ron Hawkins fan. I maintain that he's one of the best songwriters Canada has produced and I've been a fan since before Shakespeare My Butt was released. I've been lucky enough to photograph The Low doing their thing at TURF 2013 and at Beerfest 2015. Click the links for those posts. All my posts on Ron's extra-Low endeavours can be found here.
Here's the setlist from this show:
"Powerlines"
"Kinda the Lonely One"
"For the Hand of Magdalena"
"Letter from Bilbao"
"Gerona Train"
"Gamble"
"Do the Right Now"
"Salesmen, Cheats and Liars"
"So Long Bernie"
"City Full of Cowards"
"Immortal"
"Just About the Only Blues"
"Something To Believe In"
"Infinite"
"The Last Recidivist"
"Gossip Talkin' Blues"
"Eternal Fatalist"
First Encore
"Subversives"
"California Gothic"
"Bleed a Little While Tonight"
Second Encore
"Rosy and Grey"
The band have a bunch more shows planned, starting with next weekend's appearance at the Sandbanks Music Festival and they mentioned dates at The Horseshoe for later in the year. Can't wait to see them back in the venue where I witnessed so many shows back in the day. Do The Right Now is available. Right now.
Listen to some of my favourite Lowest of the Low tunes:
