Traditionally, the weeks following Rifflandia are packed with some great concerts that have the tendency to slip under the radar. Acts like The Shins, Father John Misty, Peaches, Brother Ali, The Wooden Sky, and many more we wouldn’t regularly have the chance to see in Victoria have played the in that black hole of time after Rifflandia full of exhaustion, hangovers, and Rifflandaflu.
The long awaited return of The Rural Alberta Advantage had them saddled for this weird in-between week but, in the end, Victorians pulled up their Blundstone bootstraps and best flannels and hit the Capital Ballroom for one of the best nights of indie rock in quite some time.
The night started with a captivating performance from Toronto-based three-piece Housewife.
Well, technically Housewife is a two-piece, with singer-guitarist Brighid Fry and bassist Pascale Padilla taking power-stances at the front of the stage with their touring drummer settled at the back of the stage far from the spotlight.
Housewife quickly had the audience swaying along with their music, notably those few that embraced the stage barricade early in the show. At many moments, it was hard to not compare their sound to The Cranberries and The Cardigans, especially when it came to vocals of Brighid Fry during songs I’m Spent and You’re Not The Worst.
Before launching into their single, Patrick Bateman, Brighid bemoaned Air Canada for losing their merch on their flight out to West Coast, leaving them with two solitary pieces of memorabilia that were quickly snatched up. A shame for those hoping to grab a vinyl or t-shirt after their indie-rock laden set.
In April of this year, the duo changed the band’s name from Moscow Apartment to Housewife. While they haven’t commented on the swap publicly, it isn’t hard to imagine how the name change came about with current world events.
The name change hasn’t hampered the band’s ambitions or drive. With a new record on the horizon, hopefully that means that they make their way back to the island soon. They certainly gained a whole set of new fans at the Capital Ballroom.
As Housewife finished their set, it was clear the Capital Ballroom was filling up quick. The room was filled with that anxious energy that only comes out with the anticipation that a headliner is about to take the stage. Tonight, Victoria was about to be treated to the long awaited return of The Rural Alberta Advantage.
It’s been almost twelve years since The Rural Alberta Advantage took the stage in the capital city of British Columbia. That’s right, twelve years! Let’s just say folks were excited when Nils Edenloff hit that first note of CANDU from their latest EP, The Rise.
The RAA (that’s what the cool kids call them), fresh off several dates opening for Broken Social Scene (the cool kids call them BSS), were warmed up and ready to rip into the night, barely giving us breathing room before launching into Bad Luck Again and Tornado ’87, the latter familiar to many of us who have spent any time in Alberta; a story stretched to a legend. We are still waiting on a Victoria-based band’s rebuttal with Blizzard ’96.
More than once we found ourselves admiring drummer Paul Banwatt: arguably one of the most technical and interesting drummers Canada has ever produced, and just a gem to watch. Banwatt was clearly enjoying himself all night with a bright and beaming smile never leaving his face.
Keyboardist Amy Cole floated around seamlessly sharing in smiles and jokes with drummer Paul, before reappearing behind pedals with her crisp vocals. Together, this band shines like no other and it would be hard to imagine anyone else on stage with them.
Nils Edenloff’s unconventional voice echoed back at him from fervent crowd throughout the night, but never quite as loud as when The RAA played Stamp. After all these years, the single is still a barn burner.
Briefly, Nils holstered his guitar to exclaim “This is a keyboard song!” followed by a chuckle. “After I wrote this song [Vulcan, AB] about about a small town in Alberta, my dad was like ‘you know your grandma was born there, right?’ Anyways, here’s a song about a town that went hard into Star Trek.” We hope the band caught some of the people wandering around our city in full Star Trek regalia for Capital City Comic Con that weekend.
The energy of the band, and the crowd, never waned throughout the late September evening, despite there being little to no reprieve from the sweat-inducing heat in the venue. In fact, it seemed to bring us all a little closer when singing along to our favourite RAA songs.
As we spilled out into the cool air on the streets below the Capital Ballroom, we heard several audience members wishing for the band to come back soon. We couldn’t agree more. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take another twelve years for us to get our next dose of The Rural Alberta Advantage.
