One chord to another.

Just as I expected, Sloan playing the entirety of "One Chord to Another" at the Great Hall last night was AMAZING.

Jason got sick with the flu, so at the last minute, I got my friend Mathew to go to the show with me. One man's illness is another man's rock show, I suppose. Mathew's a big Sloan fan so it totally made his day to get to go the show, plus we hadn't gone to a concert together since June, so it was nice opportunity to catch up on rock shows.

We got to the venue just in time to see Ohbijou, whom I love. They put on a really great set. They were followed by a fun set by the Rural Alberta Advantage. Heck, if those two bands had been the show, I would have gone home happy.

But I was there for the Sloan.

The two of us managed to get right two the front of the stage and had a great view. I was bummed because I forgot my camera, but Mathew brought his. The pictures in the post are his, which I have lifted from Facebook. Here's a great one of the drum kit. It's same one that they used during the OCTA days. Vintage.

As promised, the band ripped right through 1996's OCTA. They started with track #1: "The Good in Everyone" which is such a classic Sloan song. I just have to post the video. Fast forward to 2:15 to check out the drumkit back in its heyday.

They pulled no stops. They brought out horns for "Everything You've Done Wrong". Of course I loved hearing the singles from OCTA, because they are awesome, but my favourite song of the night was "G turns to D". Even a girl who has seen Sloan an estimated 25 times doesn't get to hear that one live very often.

Here are more pictures courtesy of Mathew. Here are Patrick and Chris. We were standing on Patrick's side of the stage.

Chris and Jay:

Patrick:

During the encore, Sloan kept faithfully with the theme of "it's 1996". They played "Snowsuit Sound" from 1994's "Twice Removed" and "500 Up" from 1992's "Smeared".

The show was organized by the punk band Fucked Up. Lead signer Damian Abraham joined Sloan to do a hardcore punk song which was fun.

However, the highlight of the show was when the band finished from a song they were working on for their "next album", i.e. 1998's "Navy Blues". (Love how they kept with 1996.) For "She Says What She Means", they were joined by guest guitarist FEIST. Yes! I was treated to Feist two nights in a row! WOW!!! Can you believe it? She completely rocked out! It was awesome!

Sigh, seriously, what a week! What a month! I've seen Feist thrice! And to top it off, Mathew scored me the night's setlist.

Sigh.

On that note, I came across a video of Feist from Tuesday's Basement Revue. Check it out, if you are so inclined.

2011 has definitely been a year of awesome shows for me. Is it over? I don't know. It's quite possible that I'll go to a show on New Year's Eve. We shall see.

Well, that concludes my latest concert wrap-up. I have to go sort through Christmas cards and gifts for my lovely colleagues. Last day tomorrow. Thank goodness. Then on Saturday, I'm off to Stratford for Christmas.

This might just be my last post until Christmas. I hope that your Christmas, wherever you are, is very merry and bright.