Last Wednesday my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Lowest of the Low concert here in Edmonton at the Needle Vinyl Tavern. I was excited about this show for several reasons, for starters I have always been a big fan of LOTL since their debut album Shakespeare My Butt that was released in 1991, and they haven't played Edmonton since 2002. Not only that but local rockers Jr.Gone Wild would be opening the show. Talk about a great double bill of two awesome Canadian bands. There was also another local band on the bill called Short Of Able.
The evening started with Edmonton band Short Of Able. I had never heard of the band before but thought they were actually alright. Apparently they have been around since 2011, but have just recently ramped things up again with more gigs and a record released last year. Kind of an indie pop rock style of music. I thought they did pretty good actually.
Next up was Jr.Gone Wild. This would be my tenth time seeing them play in concert, a band that never lets me down. Their hour long set was filled with lots of new music. I believe there was eight new songs in total and five of which I had never heard before. The newer songs that I hadn't heard before were (hope I got song titles right) "Girl In The Crowd", "Five Million Songs", "Dodge", "Mars" and "What Can You Do". All the songs sounded great with the classic JGW sound. One of the songs, I can't recall which one was the song that the band stole some of the lyrics from Chi Pig of SNFU (Dodge maybe). As lead singer Mike McDonald went on to say it was a little pay back for SNFU stealing some of his lyrics many years ago. Another new song they did called "Warren's Van", a song they have played a few times before was an absolute rocker. The band really seemed to speed this one up from the last time I saw it performed. Of course the band also played some of their older stuff as well. A great show by Jr.Gone Wild and looked like the crowd was enjoying their set, even the new songs, with people dancing and singing along to the older stuff.
I had the chance to talk to lead singer Ron Hawkins of Lowest of the Low a bit at the show and he had mentioned that JGW was a big influence on the band and especially the debut album of theirs Shakespeare My Butt. Ron said this was a double bill that had been 25 years in the making. The guys from LOTL were out amongst the crowd watching Jr.Gone Wild's set.
Jr.Gone Wild at The Needle.
Headliner of the evening was Toronto band Lowest of the Low. It was nice to see the band finally make it out west, they have been doing shows out east in the Toronto and Buffalo area off and on for a few years now. But now they were out this way and with a new album "Do The Right Now" under their belts. Their first new album in thirteen years, which is damn good by the way.
Lowest of the Low opened the show with the song "Powerlines" from the new album, also played from the album were "Gerona Train", The title song "Do The Right Now" and "Something To Believe In" all the new songs went over very well, but nothing like the response songs from the Shakespeare My Butt got. And they played a great selection of songs from that album. That album Shakespeare has been voted as one of the best Canadian albums recorded over the past 30 years. When Ron Hawkins and the band tore into those songs the crowd was singing along word for word. Songs like "Kinda The Lonely One", "Letter From Bilbao" "Salesman, Cheats and Liars", "So Long Bernie", "Just About The Only Blues", "Henry Needs A New Pair Of Shoes" and more ending their set with "Rosy & Grey" from said album. I was also very impressed with Lawrence Nichols all the harmonica, he was wailing all night. There were even a few songs from the album Hallucigenia. Ron Hawkins was in good form too as was the rest of the band. An awesome night of music by three great Canadian bands. Good times!!!
Lowest of the Low at The Needle.
T-shirt.
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