Fans lap up melodies of Saskatoon’s Sheepdogs during Kelowna show
Ewan Currie promised a traditional rock ‘n’ roll concert. And The Sheepdogs delivered on Sunday night at Kelowna Community Theatre.
This wasn’t the bombast of Led Zeppelin but the catchy melodies and harmonies of groups like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Sly and the Family Stone, Humble Pie, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Allman Brothers Band, which frontman Currie credits for his inspiration.
What made the three-hour concert even more interesting was the contrast with opening act Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs.
This Toronto-based punk/garage band mainly consists of Coffey’s impassioned wailing into a microphone, often muddy, and a wall-of-sound beating of lead/rhythm/bass guitar strings.
The Sheepdogs, on the other hand, balanced the volume of vocal harmonies with Currie’s and Jimmy Bowskill’s guitars, bass guitar from Ryan Gullen, keyboards by Shamus Currie (also trombone and tambourine) and drumming by Sam Corbett.
The sold-out theatre had a lukewarm response to Coffey, but every time he mentioned Sheepdogs, applause and cheers erupted.
With the first notes of The Sheepdogs’ I’ve Got A Hole Where My Heart Should Be, the atmosphere changed completely. Currie’s lyrics were clear and piercing. And when Currie and Bowskill, both wearing matching-pattern satin country-style shirts, launched into one of their many instrumentals, their musical hooks received an enthusiastic response.
Currie promised more new material from the latest album, a string of hits from Future Nostalgia released in 2015 and “old chestnuts” from as far back as Who? from the Five Easy Pieces EP and I Don’t Know from Learn & Burn in 2010-11.
Learn & Burn was Rock Album of the Year at the 2012 Juno Awards and I Don’t Know was Single of the Year while the band was named Best New Group.
That was followed up by the self-titled album, The Sheepdogs, in 2012 with gold-certified singles, Feeling Good and The Way It Is.
Sunday’s set list not only included those, but other memorable tunes like Up In Canada, How Late How Long, Feeling Good, I’m Going To Be Myself, Laid Back, Let It Roll and I Ain’t Cool.
Bowskill’s violin bowing and plucking solo, the “Fiddler on the Roof segment” and “Jimmy’s portion of the show,” as Currie described it, received a boisterous response followed by cheers for Shamus Currie (Ewan’s brother) on the trombone.
One of the show’s highlights was the stage lighting: numerous spots and cluster spots, plus strobes, in multiple colours illuminating lots of artificial fog.
However, the predictable encore may have become too predictable for this mostly 20s and 30s crowd since everyone simply stood with light applause, cheers and whistling.
The Sheepdogs, on the other hand, produced the missing Downtown from Future Nostalgia, and The Way It Is.
Then, unexpectedly, covers of Hold Your Head Up by the English rock band Argent in 1972 and Ramblin’ Man by The Allman Brothers in 1973. Coffey and his bandmates in the Iron Lungs were invited on-stage to join in, 10 vocalists in all, proving the opening act could indeed sing clearly.