CFMU FUNDRAISER – Sober Marge Reviews

[Large Marge]

What an incredible night of music!!! Featuring: HURON, ELECTROLUMINESCENT, COWLICK, SANDMAN VIPER COMMAND, HARLAN PEPPER

Harlan Pepper are young up-and-comers - I especially enjoyed their bluesier stuff with the front man (boy) on banjo (as opposed to the Korg). They need a bit of work on their harmonies, but sounded pretty good once Dougie got the drummers vocals turned up.

Sandman Viper Command were the highlight of the eve for me, only because I'd never heard of them so had no expectations. Young and confident, they have been playing together for a while and according to folks who know them, have improved tremendously. I like that they all kind of shared the front man role and the vocals (incredible vocals!!!) were coming from stage right with the rhythm center stage. I was reminded of the Beatles straight off and some govner of givner dude that I met pointed out the correlation to Queen. (These are loose references of course but not outlandish). It didn’t hurt that they were oh-so-dreamy… Momma Marge sure likes them college boys!

Cowlick was all about the drummer. Nice and loud and a little unexpected. The climax of their set was that the last bar of their last song sounded at the same time as the game ending horn on Canada’s hockey victory. The crowd went nuts!

Electroluminescnet is a one-man looping mood-maker. I think he’s played on the same bill as Lauzon in the past but if not, Prost and I were joking that it would make for a good battle of the Moogs. No doubt who would win and he wasn’t in Hamilton last night. The Luminescent guy is good at what he does (and has a great/awful moustache!) but it’s all very ambient and not as complex with the melodic layering, IMHO. The front row of aspiring musician fans were practically drooling over his pedals though… too cute!

Huron rocked their set hard! I forgot how heavy they can get Despite my body protesting under its current weight, the incessant kicking in my belly urged me to get on my feet and rock some with the boys. It was a little light on The Good Rev’s amazing pedal steel for my liking, but was actually the perfect set to end off a night to celebrate local music and radio. They rocked it!

Not too many skanks out that I saw from my reserved seating in the front (thanks Show-whore!) but definitely a good crowd. Thanks kc for helping put it together. All in all, a great night in the Hammer!!!

[gentlemonkey]

Can't wait to check out Huron in O-town..!

[Prost]

Huron were great last night! Good ol' balls out rock 'n roll! The vinyl sounds amazing. Nicely done boys.

I got there as Electroluminescent was on stage and like Marge said that cookie duster was incredible. The first thing that came to mind was 'Around the World in 80 Ways'. He looked as if he arrived in a hot air baloon. Great mood music as well though! His vinyl sounds great too!

A good night of local music!