The last day of the Red Truck Concert Series completes the 3 days of local and international rock and roll bands and like the other two evenings, tonight’s festival sold out weeks before the show, promising an unforgettable evening.
The second Red Truck concert (last month) had a more country vibe and highlighted bands that were widely recognized in the country scene such as Chis Buck and Drake White, and tonight’s final show was definite Blues, old school Rock and Roll, Soul, and R&B.
When I arrived the Red Truck Brewery at Main & 1st Ave the venue was completely packed and it was quite difficult at times to walk in between the stage and the food area. This was expected though since the show was sold out.
The band playing at the time I arrived was Vince Vacarro. The Canadian singer famous for his single “Costa Rica” rocked out on the second stage, his guitar and voice could be heard all throughout the venue closing his set with his most famous song “Costa Rica”.
Because of the current wild fires in BC, all of the Vancouver area was filled with a terrible smog (unlike the second show that cultivated in a beautiful sunset evening) Tonight’s sky was slightly opaqued by the grey skies and humid air, but the crowd was no less enthusiastic.
The Vancouver based Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer played for roughly an hour, with the voice of Shawn Hall at the helm, multi instrumentalist Mathew Rogers playing guitar and a couple of amazing backup singers to harmonize with the voice of Shawn, Their raw style of old school Blues and Roots music was a performance that captivated the entire audience. People were dancing and drinking as the band’s harmonica was playing at full volume. They played their singles “Shake it”, “Don’t Make ‘em Like They Used To” and surprised us with a couple songs of their new album “Apocalipstic”. These guys killed the stage – if you’re into good old blues I’d recommend checking these guys out.
Lee Fields and The Expressions were the absolute hit of the night, the legendary soul artist now in his mid-60s played an unforgettable show, playing at nearly 2 hours a full set-list, filled with romantic songs and his amazing voice. The soul artist was introduced and the band went onstage and played, everyone was there singing and dancing with his 1960s style of music. Lee Fields told the audience he was happy to play in Vancouver and you could tell he was giving his best performance. He played songs from all over his 40-year old career. Playing songs like “Faithful man”, “You just can’t win” and “Let him in”. ‘Little JB’ as they call him, closed the Red Truck Concert with a great party – and make his show even more magical, a couple of drops of water rained on the venue at the show’s end.
In all, the day was a great experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to enjoy a fun food/beer and music filled evening. Can’t wait until the next one.
©nightMair Creative.com
all rights reserved
written by Emilio Angel