Friends And Lovers

In an old post, I linked to a fake band name generator that would randomly pick 3 words. The joke being that so many bands have 3 name monikers. Tonight at Massey Hall, both bands had a mouthful of syllables. First up was Rural Alberta Advantage. This trio straddled the line between folk-pop and songs with a slight country bent, due to singer's Nils Edenloff Alberta background. What made their distinctive sound was the furious, muscular drumming of Paul Banwatt. This mixture of confessional, often melancholic lyrics, and hard percussion was interesting but grew tiresome since it was omnipresent on practically every song. It was a relief to hear some numbers with a quieter and sparser arrangement. Amy Cole backed the tunes with airy harmony, bass, and synth.

After the break, Great Lake Swimmers took to the stage. This venerable folk band was joined tonight by a string quartet. This added even more lushness to an already rich palette. Eventually, I was pining for some of that RAA muscularity to inject propulsion to a series of mellow, mid-tempo songs. The harmony between Tony Dekker and fiddler Miranda Mulholland was beautiful, but her playing felt under-used and constrained. On tunes where she was able to break out some runs, especially as an interplay with Erik Arnesen's banjo or guitar, the music soared. After a Neil Young cover (Long May You Run), they unplugged their instruments and played acoustically around a single mic (Still). This great number played up both their warm folk roots and its toe-tapping ability. I wanted to hear more songs like that from their set.