Saturday night was the type of night where I wish I had a clone or three just to catch all the awesome shows happening in the city. As it was I had to content myself with catching parts of many instead of all of one.
The Lethbridge Folk Club wound up their season, May 28, with an exceptional, though poorly attended show by Winnipeg born, Toronto bred and current Edmonton based singer-songwriter Ben Sures.
 He always puts on a fantastic show full of wit, charm, laughter and some pretty cool guitar playing. This time he mostly played electric guitar.

 I caught most of his second set and was impressed as expected. This was the first time I saw him backed by a rhythm section. He had Chantal Koenig on bass who had her eyes closed in concentration, getting lost in the groove as Andrew Miller held down the beat on drums.
 They played subdued rhythm through a  set of mostly new music from Sures’ new CD “Gone To Bolivia.”
 He had the audience of 28 singing backup for several songs  and played some very cool laid black blues in Mose Allison’s “Everybody’s Crying Mercy.

 He told the story of  “Embrasse Papa, Fais Dodo” on the Cd, which is a song about his grandma, whose dad was part of the French resistance during the Second World War, who used to kiss a picture of her dad  before going to bed each night as he wasn’t around.

 Most of the new CD dominated the second set. Some live highlights were “Gone To Bolivia.” and “Her Prince.”
 He ended the set with a solo acoustic version of “Postcards,” the last track on the disc.

The Swollen Members returned to Lethbridge, May 27 for a one shot reunion with Moka Only. They killed it, as I could see around midnight when I arrived and they were just getting warmed up.

Their rabid fans swarmed in front of the stage shouting along with an array of familiar hits. Mad Child got a work out running all over the stage, bumping fists with fans at the front of the stage. A couple of girls joined them for most of the show.

A lot more of the fans jumped on stage to help sing “Too Hot to Touch.”

They also played some new music from “Daggermouth ” and some freestyle rap from one of the members Prevail. Moka Only fit in like he never left and everybody seemed to be having a good time.

 Tyler Bird made a long awaited return to the Slice stage with his alt rock project Queen of the Worms, May 27.

He was backed by the crack rhythm section of drummer Clayton Smith and bassist Taylor Ackerman,  who were locked in with each other and really made Bird shine through a set of mostly original upbeat alt rock and Husker Dü-ish post punk music.

 He also added a capable cover of the Ramones’ “I Want To Live.”
He displayed a variety of innovative rhythms ranging from rock to a very cool jazz tinged, groove filled number.

Hippodrome returned to get a good sized crowd at the Tongue N Groove dancing, May 27.

I caught a good chunk of their second set. The full 11-piece band started slow with Juran Greene crooning “Try A Little Tenderness” then slowly picked up the steam and built up to an energetic set of R and b and soul music.

The audience got dancing  to one Greene sent out to the ladies in the crowd. The Shawna Romolliwa took lead vocals on another.

 Greene got everyone on their feet with “Land of the Thousand Dances,” while the always charismatic and hilarious Erica Hunt prompted them to do some pretty funky moves including one called “the Pee Wee,” which she observed, she couldn’t get through without laughing.