Pal Joey at The Artery March 7th 2015

Last Saturday my Cuz and I made our way to the soon to be closed venue downtown called The Artery to see local pop punk/country band Pal Joey with opener Amy van Keeken.

This show was the CD release show for Pal Joey, their first new music since 1999. Their new album is called Lucky Pennies, which is really good by the way.

This was my third time seeing the band live, and first since 1993's Moshfest. So it had been a long time. The band lead by Trent Buhler sounded pretty damn good on this evening. Pal Joey did two sets on this night. This time around, the band has a horn section consisting of three guys. While I really enjoyed their set, I have to admit that I found the horn section, whom are called the Brassholes, started to get to me after a while. I do like horns in songs, I found that the horns were too loud and drowned out the guitars and bass at times. The horns just started to be over powering and took away from the rock n' roll that Pal Joey play so well. When there were no horns is when I really liked the show. These guys can rock, they remind me of another old Canadian band called Lowest Of The Low at times. The band covered music from all three of their albums. All and all a great show by Pal Joey, looking forward to seeing them perform again soon. Good times!!!

Pal Joey at The Artery.

Opener was a lady by the name of Amy van Keeken doing a solo show for the most part. I didn't realize that she also plays in the local band The Awesome Hots. She sounded good during her set, but it really wasn't my thing. Just my opinion of course.

Amy van Keeken at The Artery.

In other news... as I mentioned earlier, The Artery will be shutting down at the end of March, which is sad as this is a great room to see an intimate show. I have only been two shows at this venue, but both times were great shows with good turn outs and great staff. Always sucks to lose a live music venue in a city, especially when it is because of city bureaucracy.

The Artery will be putting on a two day closing party on Saturday March 28th and Sunday March 29th with music from bands all day starting at noon both days. The club has started a fund raiser program, as they are looking for a new place to set up. Checkout their website to see how to donate.

T-shirt.