Sloan

Snow Jam
False Creek, Vancouver, BC

Just a mini review, well not much of a review at all. Sloan played last night at the Molson Snow Jam event here in Vancouver. There was skateboarding, bmx biking,...etc...and lots of merchants around the area, so people just didn't hang out in front of the stage waiting for each band to come on. Sloan played second to last,...in front of only Matthew Good (of course), who from this point on, I think I should call "Demi-GOD of Vancouver". It's like that guy can do no wrong these days......whatever.
Anywho, Sloan came on just after 8pm,...The set went something like this (I may be missing some songs):
The Good in Everyone
Coax Me
New song (titled "Pick it up,..and dial it"?)
Another new song (sung by Chris, but I can't remember the name)
So Beyond Me
Sensory Deprivation
Snowsuit Sound
New song ("The other guy (or man?)")
Money City Maniacs
Chris gave the audience a little history of Sloan, telling them that they have 5 albums, and a new one on the way, and they were trying out some new material. For one of the new songs, he mentioned that it was a song that no one would know, but that's ok, because one day, when it is a HUMONGOUS hit,....we could all look back and say "remember when they played that song at Snow jam before the cd was released? That was cool".....he finished off with "um,..but it probably won't be, so never mind".
All the new songs Sloan performed were sung by Chris. I am really bad at remembering set lists and names, so please forgive the mistakes above, if anyone else on the list was there. The first new song, Chris dedicated to Nardwuar,..who was in the audience. Chris went on a little rant about how some people think that rock and roll is dead (which is kinda what the song is about),.....and said that he wanted to dedicate the song to Nardwuar, because he knew how to ROCK. Then there was some comments about the crowd not knowing how to rock, except Nardwuar, which I thought were a little unnecessary.....even if the crowd did consist of mostly drunken teenagers.
Overall, Sloan sounded pretty solid. The guitars were good, the bass was good, most of the vocals were strong too. I am looking forward to hearing the new cd - as Chris emphasized, it definitely should ROCK! Oh, and for the fashion conscious Sloan fans, the piece of clothing I was least fond of had to be Patrick's BRIGHT YELLOW shirt. You know, good looking guys can usually get away with certain fashion "f'aux pas" but I was NOT diggin' the shirt.

Note: Sloan lurker please ask Patty to ditch the shirt :)

Jay was wearing a really nice Expo '86 shirt....base ball T style, with white body, blue writing and blue arms. To me this was a subtle acknowledgement that he was in Vancouver now, and had also been in Vancouver for Expo '86,...awww nice! Thanks Jay.
Overall, I really don't like these sorts of events, because I think that they attract people who just want to get wasted, and be rowdy in the crowd, and don't really care about the music......But perhaps I am just too old :) Though, I was surprised to see more people that I thought I would singing along to "snowsuit Sound" in the crowd,...so I should give the people of Snow Jam some credit, perhaps they were Sloan fans.
ANYWAYS (way too long here, Nikki, cut it off.....), I am totally looking forward to seeing Sloan again in their own concert, with their own fans. It's been quite a while....I hope all of you guys seeing them later on this Molson thing have a great time.
cheers,
nikki