Its always a gamble checking out a new music fest, especially when that festival is 1100km away! But when we saw Sam Roberts Band AND The Glorious Sons on the same bill/same night, we had to check out Edmonton’s Sonic Field Day festival.
We arrived in easy style using Sonic’s free shuttle bus from the University parking checkpoint, and had a very short walk to the Amphitheatre at Hawrelak Park – gorgeous little venue with standing room up front, tiered general admission seating under cover, enough space above that on the grass for loungers and blankets, and various picnic tables and standing room dotted around the natural bowl. Merch booth, and food trucks dotted behind the backstage completed the venue.
We arrived in time to watch The Blue Stones take to the stage. Our friend Jeremy Baker at CFOX radio has on more than one occasion, raved to us about how good this duo/band is.. and often, until you see a band live, you really can’t appreciate them. Thus is the case with The Blue Stones. For only two guys on stage, they sure make a heck of a noise – and a good noise that that! With only a guitar and drummer, both band members do singing duty. Their sound is listed as bluesy rock; apt description lighter on the blues, heavier on the rock. We’re definitely new fans!
The Beaches were up next, and I have to admit I’m not much of a fan of female voices – although at last month’s Vancouver Folk Fest I did discover some amazing female artists! The Beaches, although not my jam – were good! Again a band that are much better live than any recording can capture. Or maybe its just that seeing it live breathes life into the songs. The crowd went wild over these ladies.
Up next were Grandson. We saw Grandson a few years back opening for The Glorious Sons in Kelowna, and at the time they were loud, abrasive, mesmerizing, enticing.. and now they’re even more of all that! Jordan Benjamin is a live wire – jumpy, passionate, political, irreverent. Everything rock and roll should be (and doesn’t seem to be these days). He referenced Trump a few times , told the audience that ‘rock and roll isn’t dying – it never went anywhere!‘ and had the audience bouncing for the entire set. It was wild! At one point he noticed a sign up front, scooped it up, waved it around, kissed it and handed it back to the owner much to the delight of the group holding it.
The turnaround time between bands was pretty decent – less than half an hour.. not even enough time to hit the washroom! But we checked out the merch booth (bought a tee!) and did a walk around, then found a spot up front for Sam Roberts Band.
As with every band thus far, Sam Roberts and band came out without any rockstar pretence – instead, letting the music speak for them. With a shorter time slot than usual, it was great that SRB chose to not perform just the radio hits, but to delve into their entire catalog and run with songs that got the crowd going again – guitar heavy, danceable tunes like Human Heat, Fixed to Ruin, If You Want It, and my personal favourite Metal Skin. Nice that Hard Road also made the list (another personal favourite), and of course, Brother Down as the closer, which allowed the band to jam a little and experiment, while Roberts wandered off into the crowd to dance, shake hands, hug, and smile with as many people as humanly possible. The set ended too soon but with the amount of bands on the roster, was conversely just the right length. Sam Roberts Band are currently working on new tunes – no date yet as to release but hopefully soon!
Last change of gear for the night, sun is down by now, stage lights more pronounced, and The Glorious Sons come out to thunderous applause. One thing we noticed throughout the day is that each band had their own set of diehard fans who would make their way down to the standing room only front, and after each band left the stage, the gulf would open up just a little bit again – for The Glorious Sons it was jam packed.. everyone knew this was the last hurray of the night and wanted to jump in and celebrate.
Frontman Brett Emmons was resplendent in all black; button up shirt, slacks, and red suspenders..a far cry from his previous attire of leisure suits, borrowed tees and feather boas and even hotel robes of last tour haha. Bare feet prevailed though on both Emmons (the younger) and his brother guitarist Jay Emmons. Rounding out the stage were lead guitar, bass, drums and keyboards – and keyboard player Josh Hewson stole the show in our corner whenever Brett Emmons was off in the other corner playing up to the audience.. Hewson was low key but would whip his hair around, slouch, put his knees up and feet on the keys.. he was fun to watch!
Read our interview with Glorious Sons front man Brett Emmons – on roll & loving his life
The overall set was electric – the audience (as they did all day) sang the choruses to the better known songs including Mama and an electrifying SOS (Sawed off Shotgun). We didn’t want it to end, but of course it must.. last song was Amigo and Emmons had a perma-grin on this face as he sang goodbye to us all. The Glorious Sons have a new album due out Sept 13 – Emmons’ birthday actually! Looks like it’s going to be another smash success based on tonight’s audience participation.
All in all Sonic Field Day was an amazing experience.. well organized, secure, safe, exciting… day one was chock full of absolute great rock bands.. Rock is Not Dead! The amazing thing is the bands were all Canadian! We have some amazing talent in this country right now and Sonic scooped most of them! See you all next year.
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