Local rock band Gravity Crash won Average Joes open for the Bands Nazareth competition, June 9.
Several of Average Joes jam faves went head to head this past Thursday, June 9, for the Open for the Bands Nazareth finals. For the first time in a while, there was a decent turnout.
Lance Tailfeathers Society had a pretty inspirational set, with the tight band jamming on a variety of covers including the Doors’ “Break On Through,” plus a ve
ry cool Santanaish instrumental, a little bit of slide guitar powered blues, a slower original and put their own inimitable stamp on Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall Part 2,” which he ended again by ripping all the strings off his guitar to tremendous cheers.
Curt Young was up next to “jam with a few of his friends” including Lance Tailfeahters on bass an Murray Nelson on guitar. He said he was glad to be back in Lethbridge to jam with friends.
They began with a very pleasant traditional piece performed by Jamie Medicine Crane on Native flute.
The rest of the set was some pretty loose, fun, laid back blues. There was some tasteful playing on all parts and a nice harp solo and even bass and drums solos which drew huge cheers. they picked up the tempo with some more upbeat blues rock on a song called “Smoke and Drink all night,”and Young even added a little bit of rap.
The last two acts made it a tough night for the judges.
Jolene Draper, Murray Nelson, Bruce Roome, and special guest drummer Brady Valgaardson played a wickedly tight set of jazzy covers and one original.
Draper displayed her beautiful voice on a popular Macy Gray cover, then sang a laid back jazzy original. She welcomed Jamie Medicine Crane up on stage to play Native flute on it then picked up the pace on another song.
They ended the set with an outstanding version of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.”
They continued to show improvement and almost won it this time.
Gravity Crash ended up being the winners.
They had an array of lights, a lot of big riffs and up tempo energy through an extremely tight set of original rock including a couple intricately played originals.
For a special treat they brought Kris Hodgson on stage to add some cello on a haunting yet upbeat original called “Love and War.”
They won the contest and will be opening for Nazareth, July 21.
