Its been almost five years (pre-covid) since Sam Roberts Band has toured across Canada, and with four shows in BC; two at Vancouver’s famous Commodore Ballroom and one in Kelowna, it was a no-brainer to do multiple SRB shows!
Saturday night’s show was incredible; I usually find myself in the crowd, nearest to the front as possible for SRB, but tonight is spent with a large group of friends at a table, watching the crowd and band interact – a rare treat actually! A mob of fans jumping on the Commodore’s bouncing floor in unison, singing back many of the hits including Them Kids, Don’t Walk Away Eileen, Where Have All the Good People Gone (hands raised at the appropriate times), and some of the new songs (stand out was Bad Country with Dave Nugent (Nuge) wailing on the guitar in the bridge! And special mention to bassist James Hall resplendent in a poncho!)
The band was energetic as all get out, with the only respite being a few of the newer ballads from their latest album, The Adventures of Ben Blank, to which couples in the audience took advantage to slow dance with their sweeties. Its fantastic to have the band toss in some of the songs from All of Us – another stellar album that sort of got lost in the Covid shuffle of a few years ago. And Dead End from the archives made an appearance! Our first time hearing this song live.. loved it!
Sam addressed the audience briefly a few times, conveying the band’s thankfulness of being back on stage, and appreciation for such a loud, warm reception from Vancouver, then back to the business of music. Brother Down hit the set list and Roberts ditched the guitar to sing with just a mic on a wire, ditching that too at one point to dance his heart out as the band extended the song to accommodate. Leaning down near the end to slap and shake hands, his face beaming in sweat and sheer joy – it’s infectious!
After a short break (to apparently have the traditional shot of Jameson back stage), the band is back for a brief encore finishing the night with a 10+ minute rendition of Mind Flood – which Roberts once explained lets the band ‘noodle around’ and try new sounds together live. From experience, the longer Mind Flood becomes, the more the band appreciates the audience – and we were fantastic 🙂
The night was over too soon – despite Sam Roberts Band playing for just over 2 hours! Listening to a few people talk on the way out, one lad mentioned how many SRB songs he knew, without realizing he knew that many! Absolutely true! And one Sam Roberts Band show is NOT enough.. on to the Kelowna show!
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