Elliott Brood - October 28, 2007

It was a Sunday night at Louis' and only the strong-willed came out to see one of the best shows in Saskatoon this fall. While the crowd was small, the energy was high... and so was the appreciation. Appreciating such a mild evening (4 degrees), the unusually well-mannered Saskatoon crowd, and the bands that came here to play with such might to such a sparse crowd. I think that people are getting "showed out" with all the fall bands coming through. Midterms are in full force, it's getting cold out, and people are starting to hibernate into "Saskatchewan winter mode." Myself, I sacrificed many hours of sleep, spent a lot of money on merchandise, and figure that there is plenty of time to hibernate once the snow flies. For now, we dance.

The opening band was the "Sunparlour Players" and they blew me away. I had heard good things about them, but I had no idea to the extent of their greatness. It was a good sign for the show when there is such an amazing opener. Each member of the trio sat down and thumped on their bass drums and played their respective instruments. The lead singer was red in the face by the second song. It was hard to believe that a band sitting down could have such a fantastic stage presence.

The Acorn is a band that I have only recently become familiar with. The 6-piece band has been played quite a bit on CFCR, but I listened to them for the first time last week. The lead singer has a great singing voice and the two synchronized drummers were super tight, despite the bleeding hand of one of the drummers. And who knew that the yukilele could be so versatile! For all of you who learned to play it in grade 5 and thought, "This is so lame," is sorely mistaken... it's true that "Someday over the Rainbow" is not the most inspiring for a 10-year-old, but some teachers could take a lesson or two from The Acorns and their use of such a clear-sounding instrument.

Once Elliott Brood took the stage, it was 11:30 and many people were getting antsy to see at least a few songs before they took to their beds before the work/school week began. However, those of us who sacrificed sleep for music were rewarded 10-fold. When they came out and started off the set, I wondered if Mark Sasso (lead vocalist, banjo player, and guitarist) had wrecked his voice on the tour. However, they soon explained that he has a terrible cold and he was going to "give it his all" because they have a day off tomorrow. Casey Laforet (guitarist, vocals, & bass pedals) helped out a lot more in the vocal department than he usually does. Somehow they pulled it off. Sasso belted it out many times and I could see the pain in his face, but it seemed to get better with time... maybe it was the tea he was drinking. Stephen Pitkin's bass drumb is how I convince people to come with me to see this amazing band. As soon as I tell people, "He uses a suitcase for a bass drum," people are intrigued. He keeps a good rhythm too! They played all the good stuff "Second Son," "Oh Alberta," "The Bridge," and so much more. They had a collector's item of cool stuff that I was this close to buying, but I had only so much money and there was a lot of cool merch there.

The next time any of these bands comes through town NOT on a Sunday, I expect the place to be packed, which would be a shame because it was great to have so much room to dance and rock out to these amazing bands.

Crystal's rating: 9.5/10