Music
Sloan Haus Rock
Yes, Sloan. After nearly 10 years of living in Toronto but seldom playing in it, Sloan packed the Kool Haus - seriously packed it - Thursday night to remind us all they are back with a bullet, and that everything old is new again.
Fans and critics alike are pretty damn thumbs-up over their latest release "Never Hear The End Of It" calling it a return to classic "Sloan style", with it's insanely catchy melodies (ala One Chord To Another) and clever song segues (ala Between the Bridges). Their latest tour's setlist is a showcase of the new songs peppered with classics, and it's easy to tell that the band is inspired anew and loving the opportunity to showcase the new material. And, as evidenced by the nonstop bouncing and handclaps, the Kool Haus audience ate it up.
Vancouver's Yoko Casionos opened the night with a tight & engaging performance, led by charismatic front woman Misty Reid (who later joined Sloan onstage for an encore duet on "I Can Feel It", battling Chris Murphy for who can out-sass who). The Yoko's will be playing Wavelength's December 3rd show at Sneaky Dee's this Sunday - a highly-recommended good time if you're in the mood for bouncy pop.
Sloan's set kicked off with 4 new songs, including one "old is new" - "Ill Placed Trust", which was originally an old buried B-Side and is now re-done more growling & rocking than ever on the new LP (and will be it's next single). Just when the crowd started hankering for classics, Jay Ferguson launched into "The Lines You Amend", prompting 'Slooooaaaan!' chants to turn into 'Jayyyyyy!' chants, in turn prompting Murphy to mockingly roll his eyes. (Perhaps because no one was chanting 'Chrriiiis?!') Drummer Andrew Scott passed off the sticks to Murphy and got ample mic time, and Patrick Pentland's "HFXNSHC" (Halifax hardcore, ya know) got folks moshing. Actually moshing at a Sloan show. (Yeah? So? I did not. Shut up!) New tour member Gregory MacDonald brings back the much-missed keyboards, adding live punch to new Pentland songs like the excellent "I Understand". (Between songs at the Kool Haus MacDonald even dabbled in the keys intro to "The N.S.", and I think many of us got a wee bit excited at the prospect of hearing that rarely-played live song, but alas it was not to be. Tease.) Full set list HERE.
Perhaps one measure of a "mature" band's staying power is the ability to not only attract new fans (which they definitely have), but also to re-engage former fans that are on the fence or have left the corral altogether. I've seen them well over a dozen times now and will admit I was falling into the later catagory, but this show made me fall in love with Sloan all over again. It's true ... fan-girl powers, activate. If they can keep on bringing their brand of unabashed rocking power-pop, and bring it with the same fun, goofy, imperfect joy that they did last night, I hope that we never do "hear the end of it".
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I've seen them a ridiculous number of times, and this was by far my least fave. There was just something missing. I'm thinking my Sloan fandom days are over, or close to it.
Anyway, even though I was up in the rafters we rocked out and felt their energy even from that far away.
They're one of my fave old skool CanCon'ers. Guess I'll have to catch them again to make up my mind of whether they've still got it or not.
Thanks for the pics though :)
i am pretty surprised by what you said as well, in fact this show changed my mind about sloan, i will never have to be "coax"-ed into seeing them again. maybe the people walked out have a deep self-hate for themselves and leaving was just their way of self-punishment. they probably jumped off their roofs when they got home.
there are three types of wow that was a great show type of shows:
1. the band is tight news playing a hometown show and lots of energy however there is a sense that there is pressure. audience minds generally blown.
2. the band is just having alot of fun, not the best musically but still pretty good, energy is not mind blowing but the fun level overrides that as does the bands general ease and comfort.
3. 1 & 2 combined. but this is usually not the case.
so i guess what im saying is that there are merits in both 1 and 2, i think alot of people might not understand number two though.
cheers
-aviva
Sorry, I couldn't resist ;)
Someone referred to Sloan as "tight". I've seem them a whack of times, and never would I have described them as "tight". Their sloppiness is part of their appeal.
'Underwhelmed' was still a staple in the "greatest hits" repetoire they've been doing for the past few years (since Action Pact), but you could really tell that they were getting tired of playing the same hits over & over. Which I think is part of why I found this show - and it's new setlist - so appealing. But I guess the new songs weren't for everyone.