On Friday night Buzzard, Cuz and I went to the Jr. Gone Wild show at the Mercury Room here in Edmonton for the second of a two night stand that JGW were doing at this excellent intimate venue. Opening the show was Lethbridge artist Ryland Moranz, whom we only caught his last two songs.
This was my sixth time seeing Jr.Gone Wild in concert since they reunited three years ago. And I have to say they just keep getting better each time. It also nice to hear them starting to play some new material, and what surprised me on this night was the covers they pulled out.
For Friday's performance the band did two sets, the first set was an hour long and the second set was over an hour long. So a two plus hour show was great, but don't think anything will top the three hour long show they did for their first show after reforming. Still, this was the most music I had seen them do since that show.
The band started their first set opening with Just The Other Day from their 1992 album Pull The Goalie, Mike McDonald (vocals/guitar), Steve Loree (guitar/vocals), Larry Shelast (drums) and Dove (bass/vocals) didn't let up on the straight up cowpunk rock n' roll for about the first six songs, it was just one rocker after another, with not a word said between songs. A great way to start a show.
In the first set they pulled out one new song and one cover song. The new song was a Steve Loree penned song called Barricades(The Hockey Riot Song), this was my second time hearing them play this live, and it sounded even better then the first time. Maybe because I have heard the song more now as it is available on iTunes and JGW have also done a video for it which you can see here. The cover song they did, which I had never seen them perform before was the Bob Dylan song Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn), in which Mike and band rocked out. Great choice guys. They then closed out the first set with what Mike said tongue in cheek of course "here is a Napalmpom cover" the song being Cosmos, which is actually a JGW song from their debut album Less Art, More Pop! Napalmpom the band from Calgary just recently covered the JGW song on a 12 inch split album with Toronto band Public Animal. Mike and the band really rocked the fuck out of this song playing it much faster then usual. Sounded great. To hear the cover song, click here.
After a half hour break it was time for Jr.Gone Wild's second set of the night. Mike and the boys opened with Powderfinger a Neil Young song, that surprised me, again a great job by the band. There were two new songs in this set as well, one of them being a song I had never heard before called Old & Ugly, which also sound awesome. The other new song which they have played a few times now called Fool's Errand, a profanity laced song inspired by the failing and frustration of Mike's record store Permanent Records (RIP). You can really feel the anger and frustration in this Mike penned song. The other two covers they did was a song by the band The Barracudas called I Want My Woody Back. A song I had never heard before in my life. The other song was an old SNFU song Cannibal Cafe, this song was done and is to be a part of a 30th anniversary covers album of SNFU's debut album. JGW countrified this song up really well and sounds great live. They have also done a video for this song in which you can view here.
Jr.Gone Wild put on one hell of a show on this night, playing for over two hours in all and playing well over thirty songs. The band sounds great and look like they are having a lot of fun on stage. Mike sounded and played great, Steve was sounding good and can play the hell out of the lap steel guitar, Dove on bass sounded great and looks like he is having a blast and Larry on drums also sounded great and to me may be the most underrated member of the band as he keeps the beat well and seems to keep the band grounded. All and all a very fun night of wicked tunes, so good to hear the band rock out the old stuff and rocking some new material as well. Good times!!!
Jr.Gone Wild at The Mercury Room Friday Sept.4th.
Setlist.
In concert news...Mike McDonald of Jr.Gone Wild and Joe Keithley of DOA will be playing a free show at The Cask and Barrel in Edmonton as part of the Up and Downtown Festival on Saturday October 10th.
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