SLOWCOASTER June 24, 2005 Waldorf Hotel, Vancouver BC

[StoneMtn]

Slowcoaster rocked and reggaed The Waldorf Hotel in Vancouver on Friday, June 24th to a fairly subdued crowd of 50 or 60 people. (This was a two-night run, with Slowcoaster opening on the 25th for Slammin’ Jack but I missed the second night.) I attended this gig on my way to the airport to leave BC the following day for a vacation, and it was definitely worth driving down from Whistler one day early and spending a night in Vancouver.

The band is a four-piece from Nova Scotia; with Steven MacDougall on guitar, Devon Strang on drums, Mike LaLievre (a guitarist) on bass, and Darren Gallop (filling in all the necessary sounds and weirdness that you didn’t even realize were missing) on percussion.

Although these guys come from that other coast, don’t think you can pigeonhole them in to the usual genre of neo-Celtic-East-Coast-Canadiana; not by a long shot! These guys are a true jamband; but with their own spin. Essentially, I’d call them a reggae / ska-based band, with rock, funk, jazz, trip-hop, Latino, and other influences thrown into the mix.

I arrived late, and only caught the last couple of songs of first set. I can’t really comment on those, though, as we were just settling in at that point. Second set, however, was a treat. It took the boys a couple of songs to get going, but by the third song of second set those guys were blazing! I am no expert on Slowcoaster tunes, so I won’t attempt to set out the set list; but some of the highlights were, “Give Me Three Reasons”, (the soon-to-be-Canadian-reggae-classic) “Can’t Change Me”, and a funky-ass version of “Patio” with improvised lyrics such that I’m inclined to call it “The Waldorf Patio”. There were also a couple of other notable moments, like their version of Sesame Street’s “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 … 11, 12” and the classic commercial “You Can’t Get Enough of that Sugar Crisp”.

The crowd was an “interesting” mix. A few of the jammy folk were representin’, but it was also pretty obvious that this show was held on Vancouver’s downtown East Side, with a number of its local residents also making an appearance. There was not too much of a dancing-scene to speak of, but a few crazy-legged fans did get up and boogie; even if there were never more than half-a-dozen of them at any one time.

By the end of second set, I had become a Slowcoaster-fan. I bought all three of their discs; and their recent release, “Where Are They Going?”, has been on heavy rotation in my player ever since.

I paid seven bucks to see this show, and was given more entertainment than I’ve received elsewhere for 15 times that amount. If these guys come to your town, you are depriving yourself if you miss them.

Quote of the Day:

“Weezy was right. It’s a good thing we didn’t book a room here.”