I had to leave Five Alarm Funk after the first set, June 23, because I was not going to miss Toronto/ Ottawa based organ powered riff rock band Public Animal who I’d just seen at Sled Island in Calgary, but who are quickly becoming one of my favourite, can’t miss acts.
Powered by the duelling shrieking vocals of guitarist Ian Blurton and organist Caitlin Dacey and plenty of huge, beefy, juicy guitar riffs, they tore through their high octane, eardrum exploding set (I was glad I remembered earplugs) at Bo Diddly's on June 23 for maybe 30 people.
That was about five times as many as they had during their first Lethbridge visit in January and far less than the packed house had at Sled Island in Calgary over the weekend and infinitely fewer people than they deserve.
With the big guitar and organ, they sounded like a mix of Govt. Mule and Deep Purple with a touch of Black Sabbath and more modern ’70s revivalists like Monster Truck.
They were amazing as always, pummeling the audience and not letting them up for a solid hour and a half.
They came up with a novel idea before their encore as Blurton half jokingly blurted “If everyone gives us five dollars, we’ll play another song.”
Most of them did as they were bid in addition to the five dollar cover they paid to get in. And they were good for their word, playing not one, but two more songs.
Unfortunately I missed opening acts Robotoroboros and only caught the last song from local rock band the Void.
