On Wednesday evening I went to the Whiskey Wagon, Louise Distras and The Mahones concert at the Pawn Shop here in Edmonton. This was the second time I had seen The Mahones in concert this year, having seen them in January.
The first band of the night was a local band called Whiskey Wagon, while I have seen their name around a lot, I had never seen them play before. For an evening that was going to be headlined by the Canadian Irish punkers The Mahones, Whiskey Wagon was a good choice for openers. Whiskey Wagon is a folk punk band that sing a whole lot about drinking. Lead singer Landon Barrowman can sing with the best of them coming off as a lesser Shawn McGowan of The Pogues. From what I understand, the band is usually a six piece band. But on this night there were only four members, too bad, cause I would have liked to have seen them with their washboard player. Nonetheless, not only was the lead singer good, but so was the rest of the band, that included a mandolin player, drummer and horn player. I thought the horn player added a lot to the band, all and all a pretty decent band.
Whiskey Wagon at the Pawn Shop.
Next up was Louise Distras from Wakefield, England. I had never heard of her before so I thought I would check out her website before I went to the show. What I heard from her site I figured she would be worth looking into. Am I ever glad I went to the show early, as she put on an awesome show. This tour with The Mahones was her first time in Canada. It was just her with her guitar and wicked voice. Louise was promoting her debut album "Dreams From The Factory Floor" on Street Revolution Records. Which just came out at the end of September. Her performance on this evening was amazing. She could start a song with this nice soft voice and within a nano second she had this incredibly strong punk rock vocals that would just floor you. I had the opportunity to talk to her before her show, she was a super nice lady, and said she was nervous as hell, as she had just drank some Timmy's coffee which wasn't helping her as she seemed to be buzzing good from a caffeine high. Once she hit the stage, you would never know she was nervous at all, as she put on one hell of a show. I can see Louise Distras making some waves in the music scene in the near future. Well worth checking out. I picked up her album after her performance as did a few others in the audience. She definitely won over some fans on this night. Good on her!!!
Here is a video for the single from Louise Distras debut album.
Louise Distras at the Pawn Shop.
Headliners of the night The Mahones put on another great show. Hard to believe this band has been around for over twenty years, and yet this was only my second time seeing them. The first time I saw then which was in January, in which I got to see the show for free thanks to accordion player Katie(Kaboom)McConell. I had messaged her on Facebook asking if there was a chance I could get on the guest list for the show, She said yes, and I thank her for that. If I hadn't seen that show, chances are I probably wouldn't have gone to this one. So ya, putting someone on a guest list for a show will get you out to a future show.
The first time I saw The Mahones at New City Legion, I thought they put on a good show but the sound was awful. So I was looking forward to seeing them at the Pawn Shop which usually have a great sound system, but again I found the sound not up to standard. This time with The Mahones they had their tin whistle player Michael O'Grady with them, while he added a new sound to the band. I thought the whistle was too loud in the mix, the vocals and accordion needed to be louder. Maybe they are just a really hard band to mix. Having said that they still put on a great show of Irish punk rock drinking music. I swear every song has to do with drinking in one way or another. Some of the songs they played were "Past The Pint Of No Return", "Paint The Town Red", "A Great Night On The Lash", "Down The Boozer", "A Drunken Night In Dublin", "Ghost Of A Whiskey Devil" and "Queen And Tequila" you get the theme here.
Accordion player Katie(Kaboom)McConell is the highlight of the show as usual, she is just a blur of energy on stage, sounds awesome and looks amazing as usual too. Lead singer/guitar player Finny McConell comes off as a party waiting to happen, his vocals were good, other then needing to be louder. All and all a fun night of live music. Good times!!!
The Mahones at the Pawn Shop.
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