Kingston ON’s The Glorious Sons made their return to Victoria on a rainy Thursday evening in their first headlining arena tour (in support of their new album Glory) at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. The arena had a broad demographic: lots of millennials in band shirts and hoodies, lots of dudes in neutral colours and ball caps (which I totally blended in with), but also a lot of older folks. I had two very excited “wine moms” sitting in my row; both very happy to be drinking white wine on a Thursday. I just hope they took the Friday off work and remembered to drink water and pop an Advil when they got home. 😬
The Glorious Sons have a history of having great openers on their tours. The last go around, it was The Beaches (which worked out well for those gals in some respects — they sold out The Royal Theatre the following Monday and gave us Blame Brett) and, this time, they brought along The Blue Stones as their opener. They were one of my favourite sets from the Reverb Backyard Weekender at Phillips, so I was stoked to see them again. They warmed up the crowd with their raucous alt-rock and filled the room with their guitar- and drum-heavy sound. The duo have great stage presence, and their set was high energy. You could tell that they were so grateful to be playing their first arena show. They blasted through songs including Rolling With the Punches, Don’t Miss, and Shaking Off the Rust. It was a great way to start the evening, and I imagine these guys are gonna go far with their music. They kick ass, no other way to put it.
The Glorious Sons arrived to massive cheers from the crowd, opening with Mercy Mercy and getting down to business. They had serious dive bar band energy (which I wrote first, then later confirmed with a friend who had seen them in several bars over the years) and really went hard for the crowd. Lead singer Brett Emmons was barefoot and all over the stage, bringing his mic stand with him while the band played a tight set of songs from their discography. There was little banter between songs from Emmons, which is fair enough as he was getting his steps in. If I had to describe their brand of rock, I’d say it’s accessible with enough grit that it seems alternative and has a honesty that seems a bit modern country to me. The songs they played really worked the crowd into singalong territory. S.O.S. (Sawed Off Shotgun) put the people around me into a beer-fueled frenzy and Speed of Light had people crooning in their seats. White Noise was also a big crowd pleaser and Emmons broke out his harmonica during several songs. They closed their set with Everything Is Alright and I have to agree: everything is indeed alright.
I left before the five-song encore (it was a school night, after all) and enjoyed a quiet walk back to my car in the rain. All in all, I loved The Blue Stoness set and their genuine excitement about playing their first arena. The Glorious Sons were great musically, but maybe they’re still finding their footing with how to work a larger crowd. It was just the start of their tour, so I have high hopes that they’ll figure it out. The audience loved it, and I loved experiencing some new music and being back in a venue I haven’t been to since I saw Prince in 2011. Oh . . . and the lighting was great. Big shout out to the LX department and operator!
