The organ was front and centre with Vancouver’s Bend Sinister, who played an entertaining show at the Slice, Jan. 29 for surprisingly strong audience braving a miserable wintery, snowy night.
They were a lot of fun and they had a lot of energy.
Bassist Matt Rhode squeezed feedback out of his bass and jumped around, jumping into the spotlight to sing with frontman Dan Moxon. Moxon had a distinctive tenor voice which gave the band an ELO/ David Bowie meets Phish sort of sound.
His keyboard, featuring a few different vintage organ sounds anchored the band as drummer Jason Dana held down the rhythm, which Joseph Blood’s guitar and Rhode’s bass all complemented the organ. They all added background vocals
Blood added some beautiful guitar leads that perfectly filled in the few empty spaces there were. It all pointed to the organ and Moxon’s vocals.
They played several tracks of their most recent CD “Small Fame,” and a several more of their soon to be released CD “Animal” which is to be released on March 11.
“One Shot” was one of many highlights of the set which took you back to the more sensitive, yet psychedelic ’70s while adding a touch of blues and R and B as well. But they touched on the spirit of Deep Purple for some of their heavier songs.
Another highlight was a new song for which they just finished filming a video for in Rossland, B.C.
They showed off some of their influences on a solid cover of Elton John’s “Benny and the Jets.”
Ryland Moranz, best known for being part of Fort Macleod pop punk band the Sophmore Jakes, showed his acoustic side to open the show with a strong set of fancy fingerpicking
on a couple guitars and a banjo and even added a harp solo to accompany himself on the banjo.
He even added an acoustic version of a Sophmore Jakes song about Star Wars and love, for which he whistled the Star Wars theme as part of the solo.
Some of the highlights were a song about falling in love with a customs official at the border and another song called “Key.”
I was impressed, never having seen that side of him, but shouldn’t have been as he grew up with folk music as his family helped found the South Country Fair.
