The year is 2009. Disney just bought Marvel. Avatar is sweeping through cinemas. A young(er) Kirk was just entering the BCIT Radio Broadcast Program. And the band Shred Kelly formed in Fernie BC.
Now in 2019, the “stoke folk” group is celebrating their 10th anniversary with a tour that hit the Fox Cabaret in Vancouver this weekend.
First up was Old Soul Rebel, and while I only caught the last few songs of their set, they sounded exactly like their name would imply. Singers Chelsea Johnson and Lola Whyte had awesome harmonies as their voices burst offstage and through the room, carrying the ‘rock & soul’ sound of the band. They were also joined for a song by Darren of Snotty Nose Rez Kids, and based on what I heard, I am definitely going to have to keep an eye (or ear) out for them in the future.
Not long after that, Shred Kelly hit the stage and launched straight in to the title track from Sing To The Night, playing a selection that spanned their entire decade. Ranging from the soaring “Didn’t Know” off their latest album, to some of the first songs they’ve ever written like the haunting “Ghost Inside My Head”.
To bolster the bombastic alt-folk songs, each and every member of the band had big energy exuding off the stage; especially Sage McBride, who hardly stood still for a minute as her voice mixed with Tim Newton’s perfectly, the latter’s fingers blurred over the banjo for most songs. Other highlights throughout the set included the incendiary keys of “The Bear”, the explosive “New Black”, and “Cabin Fever”, which somehow conveys the claustrophobic isolation the title implies.
After finishing the set with another older tune “Goodbye July”, which they haven’t played live in quite some time, they were back for a couple more. First, the song that got them onto Tracks on Tracks (the 2012 cross-Canada musical train trip where I first met the band) which happens to be one of the most cathartic singalongs out there, “I Hate Work”. And finally finishing the dance party, appropriately enough, with a cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”, ending with Sage hopping off stage and doing just that with the crowd.
The night was an incredibly fun celebration of the band’s first decade, and with news that they were working on a new album here in Vancouver (which is almost finished, as I may have learned) I can’t wait for another ten years.
setlist
Sing To The Night
Jupiter
The Bear
Stereo
Going Sideways
Cabin Fever
Archipelago
New Black
White River
Ghost Inside My Head
Didn’t Know
Goodbye July
(encore)
I Hate Work
I Wanna Dance With Somebody [Whitney Houston cover]
