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Tour Dates
May 10 Winnipeg, MB @ The Pyramid Cabaret
May 11 Saskatoon, SK @ The Capitol Music Club May 12 Calgary, AB @ SAIT May 14 Vancouver, BC @ The Fox Cabaret May 16 Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern May 17 Portland, OR @ Alberta Rose Theatre May 18 San Francisco, CA @ Milk Bar May 19 Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite Read More
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Alberta Cross' spring North American tour made a stop at Studio B (inside Skyway Theatre) on Monday, May 9th.
Los Angeles’ Grand Canyon was the first band to play Monday and although, they are a brand new band without much internet presence (I had to ask them how to find them on Twitter and Instagram), they definitely won't stay that way for long. Their sound was southern-ish but still in the realm of the indie pop world. The slide guitar helped give it an interesting twang but also didn't make it sound like straight up country music. The singer's voice helped steer it away from the country genre as well. His voice was powerful but beautiful and not heavy like you would think it would be because of all the power behind it, particularly on their first song, ‘Lucinda’.
The singer made a few jokes about the low attendance including how when we are older, we will be able to reminisce about this show with our grandchildren because it was obviously the best show of our lives. So maybe that was a bit of a stretch... okay, it would be a huge stretch to say that last night was the best show of my life, but it was far from the worst. It was nice to see him have such a sense of humor about the terrible turn out last night instead of letting it affect his attitude and, more importantly, his music.
The second act to play was Brooklyn’s Sky White Tiger (aka Louis Schwadron) who brought a little dance party to the show. Think Har Mar Superstar if he was a bit younger and was still working on developing that protruding gut. That picture in your head is pretty much Sky White Tiger. The music is a bit more techno than that of Har Mar Superstar but the stage presence was extremely comparable and just as entertaining.
The music was a bit of a dance party. It was definitely electro-pop but at the same time, it didn't follow a formula. It was kind of all over the place but it was fun and a nice way to mix up the night. You couldn't help but move around a little bit and a few people even decided the music was worthy of getting up and getting a bit closer to the stage. Louis, the singer who was only joined on stage by his drummer Fred, was trying his best to get people to move and enjoy themselves. He walked through the empty room while singing, danced on stage, and just looked like he was having a good time.
Sky White Tiger ended his 40-min set with ‘Child of Fire’ and ‘Don’t Matter Much’, the latter was co-written with Chris Mayes-Wright.
Headliner Alberta Cross comes off as just your average indie pop band with a bit of a country twang mixed in. Then you notice the keys, and you start hearing the pumping drum rhythm behind everything and then the horns hit you right in the face and eventually you notice that this is anything but boring and generic.
As expected with a tour of the new self-titled album (Dine Alone Music), he was obligated to play a few new songs such as ‘Western State’, ‘Water Mountain’ and ‘Ghost Of Santa Fe’, which was done early in their set... saving for many of their older numbers near the end.
Singer Petter Ericson Stakee has one of the most unique voices I have heard in a while. It's high in pitch but not forced and not awkward sounding. This band ended up being a bit of a collective of the other bands that had played earlier in the night. You had two members of Grand Canyon and Louis of Sky White Tiger as part of the band. This was interesting because you could really hear the influence of each of the other bands. The music of Alberta Cross is far from having a techno feeling behind it but because of Louis' keyboard parts, you got a bit of Sky White Tiger in the mix. It wasn't quite country music but because of the slide guitar that was featured in Grand Canyon being a part of this band as well, you got a bit of the opening band. It was truly a perfect way to end the night.
W♥M will also be covering Alberta Cross’ the Satellite show in Los Angeles this May 19th.
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Grand Canyon Photo: Vu |
The singer made a few jokes about the low attendance including how when we are older, we will be able to reminisce about this show with our grandchildren because it was obviously the best show of our lives. So maybe that was a bit of a stretch... okay, it would be a huge stretch to say that last night was the best show of my life, but it was far from the worst. It was nice to see him have such a sense of humor about the terrible turn out last night instead of letting it affect his attitude and, more importantly, his music.
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Sky White Tiger
Photo: Vu
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The music was a bit of a dance party. It was definitely electro-pop but at the same time, it didn't follow a formula. It was kind of all over the place but it was fun and a nice way to mix up the night. You couldn't help but move around a little bit and a few people even decided the music was worthy of getting up and getting a bit closer to the stage. Louis, the singer who was only joined on stage by his drummer Fred, was trying his best to get people to move and enjoy themselves. He walked through the empty room while singing, danced on stage, and just looked like he was having a good time.
Sky White Tiger ended his 40-min set with ‘Child of Fire’ and ‘Don’t Matter Much’, the latter was co-written with Chris Mayes-Wright.
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Alberta Cross Photo: Vu |
As expected with a tour of the new self-titled album (Dine Alone Music), he was obligated to play a few new songs such as ‘Western State’, ‘Water Mountain’ and ‘Ghost Of Santa Fe’, which was done early in their set... saving for many of their older numbers near the end.
Singer Petter Ericson Stakee has one of the most unique voices I have heard in a while. It's high in pitch but not forced and not awkward sounding. This band ended up being a bit of a collective of the other bands that had played earlier in the night. You had two members of Grand Canyon and Louis of Sky White Tiger as part of the band. This was interesting because you could really hear the influence of each of the other bands. The music of Alberta Cross is far from having a techno feeling behind it but because of Louis' keyboard parts, you got a bit of Sky White Tiger in the mix. It wasn't quite country music but because of the slide guitar that was featured in Grand Canyon being a part of this band as well, you got a bit of the opening band. It was truly a perfect way to end the night.
W♥M will also be covering Alberta Cross’ the Satellite show in Los Angeles this May 19th.
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Alberta Cross at Studio B, Minneapolis (09 May 2016) Photo: Vu
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