Canadian rocker Sam Roberts returned to Lethbridge to play the South Pavilion of Exhibition Park and to help raise money and awareness for the Lethbridge and District Humane Society.

They had a decent crowd, but deserved a lot more.
Calgary rock band the Dudes opened the show with a typically energetic and fun-filled set of original music. They’ve played Lethbridge many times before having filled much smaller rooms like the Slice and Henotic so the lead singer joked “This isn’t like the Henotic, but we sure miss that fire-pole.”

 It sure wasn’t. They had a gigantic stage to run around on and plenty of room to spread their wings in the cavernous Pavilion, which looked sadly empty though there must have been a couple hundred people there.

While they are a lot of fun, they are better seen and appreciated in a smaller room, where you can appreciate what they do all the closer.

The crowd loved the Dudes, but came to see Sam Roberts.

 His set was late, in part to a late scheduled meet and greet with contest winners.

The band humbly and quietly signed autographs and patiently posed for pics with eager fans.

 The Sam Roberts band started with a spectacular, crazy light show and a high volume set with a couple hypnotic groove and rhythm heavy new songs, before launching into the first of many popular numbers like “Lions of the Kalahari.”

He had the audience yelling the chorus of “Where Have All The Good People Gone,” and launched into a couple psychedelic, delay heavy jams, which had the crowd cheering.

Roberts interspersed these with a few words about the importance of supporting the Humane Society.

They had launched into one of their first hits “Don‘t Walk Away Eileen,” as I was leaving.

The last night of Average Joes’s open for the bands playdown to open for Nazareth was pretty slow, April 28.
 There were a lot of familiar faces including Deadvoice, who keep getting better. They played a strong set of classic rock/blues inspired original material. One of them had a touch of Black Sabbath. All of their songs drew tremendous cheers. As always at Average Joes, the bass was turned way too loud, drowning out pretty much everyone on stage. That was not just for Deadvoice but all of the other performers.
I had never heard Lance Tailfeathers, backed by Curt Tailfeathers on bass and Tim Tailfeathers on guitar, before, so was very impressed by not only his vocals but his tasteful guitar playing.
The Lance Tailfeathers Society, who ended up winning the night, started with a very cool instrumental which was reminiscent of Santana.

It had a beautiful, toe-tapping groove and some superb guitar playing which immediately won the judges over. This was fortunate as their drummer, who they borrowed from punk band Crushing Skulls, got kicked out of the bar after their first song, resulting in Lance Tailfeathers asking if there were any drummers in the house.

 They found one who fit right in for a couple slower numbers which highlighted Lance Tailfeather’s impressive voice and tasteful guitar playing. Their last song segued immediately into a unique, funky version of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In the Wall— part 2,” which they totally made their own. Lance Tailfeathers ended their set by ripping all the strings off his guitar. Drummer issues aside, they were the hands down winner, so they join Dalliance Elixir, Gravity Falls and Curtis Young in the finals, June 9 to open for Nazareth in August.

 That was impressive as Caste of Shadows were the last competitors of the night and a tough act to beat.
Local modern metal band Caste of Shadows always put on an impressive, energetic show, and their Average Joes debut as a quartet, was no exception. They were having a load of fun up on stage, played some impressive riffs, but were again drowned out by the bass.

 An April 28 fundraiser for Japan at the Slice raised approximately $2,500 for the Red Cross to help the victims of the earthquake in Japan, back in March.

There were a variety of performers on stage including John Greenshields, Aaron Trozzo, Big Jim and The Twins and blues/ funk band which includes Greenshields, Chris Lipinski and Geoff Orris.

Greenshields started the evening off with a set of upbeat, folk and rock covers.

 I only caught the end of Big Jim and the Twins upbeat, funky set of popular music.

 I really enjoyed the Bohemian Cause’s set of stoner/ psychedelic rock. They played an upbeat show which was a lot of fun which had the good sized audience into it.

Lynn Miles is looking forward to returning to Lethbridge, though she can’t remember when she was last here.
“People always tell me I’ve played places before and I say ‘No I haven’t.’ I’m sure it’s been about a year that I played Lethbridge,” Miles said from her Ottawa home, getting ready to embark on a quick, two week, 12 date tour with special guest Keith Glass of Canadian country stars Prairie Oyster, with be playing the Lethbridge Folk Club, May 7.

“We’ve been playing together for five or six years. He’ll be playing guitar and mandolin. And his vocal harmonies are excellent,” Miles enthused.

“He can play any style of music. A lot of singer-songwriter material doesn’t have a groove, but he makes that groove happen so it really adds to it,” she said adding he won’t be playing any Prairie Oyster material.

“They have their own gigs for that, but sometimes he’ll play songs he wrote that won’t go to Prairie Oyster,” she continued.
“I have 600 songs. I wish I could play them all, but I only have an hour and a half,” she said adding she doesn’t know what the set list will look like.

“It depends on my mood and there’s usually the songs Keith wants to play. Usually I’ll play the newer songs because they are fresher,” she said.