Hollerado meets our mayor

When it was announced shortly after Sonic Boom 2011 (Sept 04), that Hollerado would be making a stop in Edmonton, during their upcoming "Meet the Mayor" tour, I already knew that I would be going to see them no matter the venue/cost. Well little did I know that they would choose to perform at Wunderbar, one of the smaller venues in Edmonton, for an intimate group of about 90 people. The event was going to be done "Wunderbar style" as well; this means that it would be on a "first come first served" basis (if you weren't one of the first 90 people through the door, well...hopefully you'd be around next time they toured...)

I was pretty nervous and thought that there would be a massive line for a band that's been creating a following during the past year. Lots of radio play for their songs "Americanarama", and "Juliette" along with their spot at Sonic Boom was finally starting to get them widely recognized out here in Western Canada.

The owner of the bar was only going to open the doors at 8pm, and keep the doors open until the venue reached capacity (which isn't hard for such a place). While we came far too early (I arrived at 6, and until about 7:30 there wasn't much more than a handful of people waiting), this gave us the chance to see the band pull up in their over-graffitied, full of character van, and unload their equipment. Once it was closer to doors-open the band even came around to the line up and talked to the crowd for a while. They even brought along a friends pair of corgi dogs. This brings about another reason, besides talent and stage presence, of why I count this band as one of my favourites: their down-to-eath personalities. Even though they are starting to get more and more fans, they're still as humble as ever, and are willing to have a chat with you instead of sitting alone in the venue drinking and keeping to themselves. All 4 members were helping to sell merch, as well as signing any t-shirts, CDs or vinyls that fans were interested in.



The opening band, Wildlife, is based in Toronto. They were surprisingly good for an opening opener for a local Canadian band, however I can't really think of anything that stood out for me (except for the lead singer having a broken leg and playing on anyway! Troopers!). Even still though, I will definitely be trying to hunt down their music to hear it more thoroughly (to be honest I was just more excited to hear Hollerado again).

The following band, Young Rival, a band that comes from Hamilton, just an hour outside of Toronto, was a bit more interesting to me. I don't really like to compare young bands to legends, for obvious reasons, but they really did remind me of the later Beatles. Their use of a sort of psychedelic guitar/vocals mix really made me think of the late 60's. The group has been playing together since the early 2000's, but have changed their name and sound since their start many years ago.

There isn't much more that I can say about Hollerado that I haven't already said in many, many, many posts. This was my 4th time being able to see them this year, and not once have they ever, even slightly, disappointed. They seem to know what works with their audience and how to banter between themselves and the audience without alienating anyone. Talking with the audience is a big part of their sets, including having someone, "anyone who can play the A chord", come up to help them play a song. Lead singer, Menno Versteeg, even crowd surfed at one point during their last song. Talk about being one with your fans, eh!

Even with all the hard work they've put in since their inception, I don't see any signs of them slowing down on the slightest. I even feel like their new songs will have just as much appeal as the previous; they played "Good Day at the Races", their upcoming new single, from their soon-to-be-released second album.

I was anxious for weeks to see how the Wunderbar venue would work out for them, since the smallest stage I had seen them play in doors was Pawn Shop, which still has a large audience space. When playing in Wunderbar, I can imagine it would be a bit intimidating or even uncomfortable to have the audience so in-your-face, but the band seemed like they really enjoyed it. After reading tweets about wanting to have a place like it in Toronto, I was pretty proud of having such a place in Edmonton. It really is one of the few bars that has such character in the city.

The crowd was a bit too young for me, which is not something I thought I'd ever say, and especially not when I'm pretty young myself. They definitely added a tonne of energy to the room, which was much needed for a band like Hollerado, but they also made for quite a thoughtless crowd at times. There wasn't much of a show of concert etiquette, and as I've said in previous posts, this should come in time...I just wish that I didn't have to be there while they're still learning. A few people even trying to get on the stage with the band, who politely showed them off the immediate area. The stage is really hardly even enough room for a 4 person + instrument band, let alone people who have gone past the point of tipsy. Even though it wasn't what I was really expecting it was nice to be at a show that had such dedicated fans.

NB: It's named the "Meet the Mayor" tour because that's exactly what the band is trying to do in each city that they play in, meet the mayor. In some cities they've even gotten to play a pre-show song with the mayor. And they did indeed get to meet Mayor Stephen Mandel just before the doors were opened to the public, and chatted with him for about an hour.