Sloan @ Commodore Ballroom
Sunday, June 5th, 2011
I was not planning on attending Sloan’s show Friday night at the Commodore but a ticket came my way and, while I haven’t paid much attention to Sloan records in about a decade, I still consider myself a fan so off I went. Plus, they’re a Canadian institution now, celebrating their 20th anniversary this year with a new record called The Double Cross which is actually a pretty solid little album.
I expected to be pleasantly entertained by Sloan and that’s pretty much what happened. They’re not world’s most amazing band but Sloan are still able to put on an energetic show. While they ignored a few of my favourite songs they played last time I saw them in Sydney, I enjoyed the show based largely on the strength of the new material. Chris Murphy’s Follow The Leader was a great opener but it then bled straight into Jay Ferguson’s The Answer Was You which was even better (bit of a Jay-fan myself).
Andrew’s set in the middle of the show was also well-received by the crowd; I loved Sinking Ships, one of my favourite songs off Navy Blues and a song I wasn’t expecting to hear. The band tossed in a few more from way back including a very shoegazey What’s There To Decide? from Smeared; it certainly doesn’t sit well with most of Sloan’s recent catalogue…which is what made it such a great moment in the show.
The main set was capped off with Beverly Terrace (another great Jay song off the new one) before Losing California. When the band returned for an encore they hit three biggies from different parts of their career: The Lines You Amend, The Other Man, and a suitably epic Money City Maniacs. Maniacs is still a stupid song with stupid lyrics which is probably why it sounds as great now as it did in 1998. Sloan, conscious of the Vancouver moment, even dropped their backdrop for the Money City finale to reveal a Canucks projection that elicited the obvious reaction from the crowd. All in all, not a bad way to spend a Friday night.
Setlist
Follow The Leader
The Answer Was You
Unkind
The Marquee And The Moon
Snowsuit Sound
Burn For It
Shadow of Love
Everything You’ve Done Wrong
Who Taught You To Live Like That?
Gimme That
She’s Slowing Down Again
Something’s Wrong
Traces
Sinking Ships
What’s There To Decide?
It’s Plain to See
Your Daddy Will Do
Don’t You Believe A Word
I’ve Gotta Know
The Rest of My Life
Beverly Terrace
Losing California
———
The Lines You Amend
The Other Man
Money City Maniacs
I had some holes in my setlist so a big thanks to Mikala over at Backstage Rider for her setlist, review, and photos.
Download
Sloan – Follow The Leader
