Hey Ocean was back in Lethbridge to play a sold out show at the Slice, Aug. 3.

 Jesse Northey opened the late starting set with a solo set of originals, including some new material plus some covers.

 Hey Ocean had the audience in the palms of their hands with waves of hypnotic indie- pop melodies and enrapturing vocal harmonies.
 There was plenty of escapist pop fun, lots of percussion and lots of dancing from lead singer Ashleigh Ball and the audience clustered in front of the stage singing along with a chorus of oohs and ahhhs, doooos and daaaas.

 The band sounded like a cross between No Doubt and Jethro Tull thanks to Ball’s flute playing with a touch of Pink Floyd ambience.

 They added a variety of styles, with a  couple, sultry jazz tinged numbers, some more exotic Caribbean sounds,  a little bit of reggae and went back to the ’80s as bassist David Vertesi donned a key-tar, which segued into a massive percussion solo featuring most of the band members, then devolved in to a few samples of classic rap.

 They  sang a cover of  the Ronettes’s ’60s pop classic “Be My Baby.”

 Ball was an adorable and talented front woman with her sexy/ cute voice and beaming smile not to mention her prowess on a variety of percussion instruments.

they played a lot of their new, upbeat and fun music from their soon to be released album including my favourite “Big Blue Wave.”

 They lest the stage with the crowd chanting “hey ocean” until they came back to play some R and B and rap.