I had to check my watch to make sure what day it was, May 25, when I arrived to a sold out Monday night show featuring some killer pop and rock with Repartee, the Gay Nineties and Zerbin.

 I arrived at the end of St. John’s  Newfoundland band Repartee’s set of bubbly pop rock.
 Lead singer Meg Warren reminded me a little of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals’ more dance pop influence.  A few members of the Gay Nineties joined them on stage to help sing gang vocals with them.

The Gay Nineties, who have been getting a lot of radio play in  the new rock station The Bridge, have worked hard and it showed in the huge crowd there to cheer them on for their fourth Lethbridge appearance in just over a year. They started with their hit  “Hold Your Fire” and immediately got half the room full of new faces, on their feet. They were singing along with the other single “ Letterman.”

 They were reminiscent of late ’90s early 2000's bands like the Darkness and the Killers with a touch of R and B, ’70s David Bowie and even a touch of the Dudes.
 They were all about having a good time and showed it in their performance which the audience was really responding to.

They had plenty of addictive guitar hooks and subtle keyboards, plus plenty of jokes  and flashing lights.

 Zerbin was all about percussion in their hot, sweaty set.
 Frontman Jason Zerbin pounded away at a Kaoss pad, keyboard, snare drum and whatever else he could hit  in addition to thrashing away on the guitar.

Peter Mol sat back adding subtle rhythms on the other guitar while drummer John Foster was a blur behind his full kit.

 Together they played an addictive set of ’80s style pop rock  which sounded like the Pet Shop Boys on steroids.

They had an addictive sound, with plenty of toe tapping drums and catchy melodies and plenty of music from their new CD “Darling.”

“Ibiza” was a highlight as was the new single “World’s On Fire” which came near the end of the set.
They had a lot of lyrics about Europe and a whole lot of good vibes.

For the last song, “ New Earth,” all three bands joined them on stage in a giant kitchen party of banging, crashing, singing and shouting along, bringing  a Monday night to a rollicking finish.

Finally, Delta bluesman Doc Maclean got a what he deserved in Lethbridge- an attentive, carefully listening crowd and a sold out room.
 The Delta born, Toronto based bluesman has played Lethbridge umpteenth  times, but never gets any of the above.

 But on May 22, he filled the Lethbridge Folk Club Wolf’s Den to the brim with 60 some people hanging off of every word he said and every note he played, May 22.

 I only caught the second set which was filled with some intricate fingerpicking and a lot of long, dark tales of gypsy women and sinister spookiness in the Mississippi.

He sang about gypsy women who would give kids beer, farmers hoeing the rows, old records  and lots of darkness.
 He began  the second set with an old familiar favourite “Johnson Terraplane,” which he introduced with probably the longest song intro on record, plucking the strings of a battered old National Steel guitar as he spoke.

He switched to an even more worn battered acoustic he called Stella, which you could see printed in fading lettering on the headstock, for some of the more upbeat numbers.

“This old gal gets to do all the fun stuff,” he grinned as he launched into a sprightly melody.

“Make It to the River” was a highlight. I especially enjoyed a new gospel influenced song about a farmer.

 One of the more fun numbers was an old Charlie Patton cover called “Shake It or Break It.”
 He wound up an exceptional set with one of my favourites “ Angola Prison Rodeo, again providing the detailed backstory behind the song about a prison in Mississippi where the warden would make city born prisoners perform in a rodeo to entertain the people, though they had never done any such thing.
  He wind up his set with a cover of blues classic “Smokestack Lightning and stood up to sing goodbye to the applauding audience.

Over at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, May 22,  ukulele and piano powered folk duo Twin Peaks were in the mood to share a whole bunch of new songs.

 The adorable Lindsay Pratt and Naomi Shore took turns singing lead vocals.
I arrived at the end  of their first set where they were leading a good sized crowd through a version of “Little Brown Jug.”

Naomi Shore played piano and ukulele as bandmate Lindsay Pratt alternated between ukulele and guitar and sang much of the lead vocals for the second set.

They cracked jokes and told stories of their lives, relationships and experiences growing up in a small town.
 They opened the second set by tackling Steely Dan’s “Dirty Work.”

Their vocals  sparkled  as brightly as Naomi Shore’s glittering blue blouse.
 Pratt  added a bit of pop on “God Damn, You look Beautiful and then showed some blues roots on the highlight “ The Juice Ain’t Worth the Squeeze.”

One of my absolute favourites of the set was a new song called “ Never Trust Your GPS” about the duo getting lost trying to find a shortcut  out of Fort. St. John.

 They followed that up with a solid cover of Tom Petty’s “ I Won’t Back Down.”
They ended their set on a quirky note by singing  a song called “Hair Panties.”

Things have happened fast for Vancouver based husband and wife duo Dear Rouge aka Danielle and Drew McTaggart.

 Their debut CD “Black To Gold”  immediately garnered major label interest after wining the Peak Performance Project in 2012.
 They begin an extensive tour in Lethbridge with an all ages gig at the Gate, June 9 with local pop band Stars from Streetlights.

 The duo come from different musical backgrounds.

“Danielle is from Red Deer and was playing more singer songwriter music  while I was in a shoegaze band,” said Drew McTaggart, adding they connected and decided to play music together, starting work on the album back in 2012. Danielle McTaggart’s grandparents live in Lethbridge.

The had previously released two EPs “ Heads Up Watch Out” and “Kids Wanna Know.”

“The great thing is we already had written and recorded the album before we even had a team behind us. We only had a booking agent,” he said.

 Universal Records picked up the CD which, since being released March 31, has since spawned four hit singles “I Heard I Had” and “Best Look Lately,” the title track and number one added single at Alternative Rock Radio, “Black To Gold.”
“ We’re very grateful people like it. It does lift us up, ” Drew McTaggart said.

He likes the new synth pop sound of the band.