A few weeks ago my pals Buzzard, Cuz, Nazz and I attended the Soul Asylum show at Midway Music Hall here in Edmonton. This was a show we had all talked about going to but hadn't bought tickets until a few weeks before the show. I was going to buy tickets on the Friday of the August long weekend but decided to wait until Saturday. Glad I did, as on the Saturday, and all August long weekend, tickets were BOGO (buy one get one free), great fucking timing. So I got four tickets for the price of two, which came out to about $32 a ticket, well worth it. Especially because this is a band I have always enjoyed and had yet never seen live before.
We got to the show early so that we could catch the opening band. A band from Los Angeles called The Props, an alternative rock band I guess you would call them. I had never heard of them before but thought I'd check them out. Well that was a waste of time. More like The Plops. Not a fan!
It was now time for Minnesota band Soul Asylum. Again, another band I had never seen live before but have been a fan of since the early 90's, though they have been around since 1984. The last time the band had played here was in 2014 at K-Days. To be honest I didn't even realize they were still a band and touring and had put out an album a few years ago. The two albums that I liked back in the day were 1992;s Grave Dancers Union and the follow up album Let Your Dim Light's Shine released in 1995.
I wasn't sure what to expect for this show, did lead singer Dave Pirner still have a voice, what would his back up band be like, what would they play, who knew? That's why you go to the shows, to find this shit out.
Well much to my surprise, Pirner still has a great voice, great on guitar and lots of energy and his band were stellar as well.
I was surprised to see Soul Asylum open their show with "Somebody To Shove" from Grave Dancers Union. The second song into the set was a new song called "The Only Thing I'm Missing" from their newest album Slowly But Shirley, the only reason I knew it was a new song is because I had listened to the album on Spotify the day before the show. I think it was the third or fourth song of the night was "Misery", hell that was two of their biggest singles within the first four songs. That surprised me. But as the show went on you forget how many big hits they had from the two album Grave Dancers Union and Let Your Dim Light's Shine. Songs such as "Black Gold", "Runaway Train", "Bittersweetheart", "Without A Trace", "Just Like Anyone", plus another new song called "Suckermaker", the new songs fit really well with the older ones. The encore was two songs, again hits "String Of Pearls" and "April Fool". It was great to see lead singer in such a good mood as well, not only sounding great but looking to have fun, even telling jokes between songs. At one point I said to my buddy Nazz, I came for the music not a comedian, I said it not to put Pirner down, but just to point out how loose he was performing. One of the jokes he told, which made me laugh and that I still recall was him saying...
"I met a drug dealer outside the venue tonight, he sold me these shoes, I don't know what they were laced with, but I've been tripping all day"
There wasn't a very big crowd for this show, mu guess would be around 250-300 people, but what a great show, this might even make my top ten of the year. Good times!!!
When the show was over as my buddies and I were standing close to the stage my buddy Nazz looked down and found this guitar pick, which he gave to me for my collection. Thanks Nazz!
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