Sloan

My friend was working at the pub at Loyalist over the summer and he told me in early August that Sloan would be playing there and I was dying in anticipation for about a month waiting for the 5th to come around. The day had come I was ready for my first ever Sloan show! We got there nice and early and came in the back entrance into the Shark Tank and caught the warm ups, I ran into Patrick before the show and got a few autographs but I was as nervous as hell (I was meeting one of my rock gods!) The time came around and National Anthem took the stage to open. They were great and worked the crowd well. When Sloan took the stage I was just overcome with joy! I could not remember much of the setlist but they were just awesome that night! the crowd was into it as well. One down point was I was at the front so security was in my face preventing me from taking flash photography :( . The show was great and the great night continued after the show, I met Chris and got some autographs from him. I met other Sloan fans and the girl would become my girlfriend of now almost a year. We got a picture together with Patrick. All I can say is if Sloan comes anywhere close to Belleville again, I will be there!

I've seen Sloan five time so far, this being the latest time and I think they were at their best sounding this show. Me and my friend got there late, because he was driving and he thought that getting their one hour early would be good enough, it was, but it almost wasn't. When we got there, the lineup was huge and we did end up waiting almost the entire hour standing in it. When we finally got to the door, we were among the last ten people to get in. As I walked in I heard the doorman tell this to the crowd to the reply of many boos. I was pretty happy that I wasn't one of them, that's for sure. Anyway, National Anthem played, which I thought was unfortunate. "Rock N' Roll Girlfriend" was the one song I remember because it's the only one I listened to, again an unforunate thing. After the song ended my friends and I just looked at each other without saying a word and we unilaterally walked outside for a smoke. After National Anthem (hope that's not a tribute to Radiohead) ended the "wonderful" set, Sloan took the stage and it was great. I was in the front wedged between other happy Sloan fans as they broke into "If It Feels Good Do It", which was cool. Then a whole number of other great songs, with me in between them yelling "Sugartune! Sugartune!" As I've said, I've seen them four times previous to this and each time, I've wanted to hear Sugartune, but to no avail. Again I had no such luck. despite this, the show was great and it ended with the usual, Underwhelmed, which is always a treat. I've always wanted to go up and play bass for them for that song, because Chris usually picks someone out of the crowd, turns his amp off and straps his bass around them. Usually some chick, because he's "the heartthrob" and he has to cater to the screaming girls, but anyway, what about me? I can actually play the song!! Anyway, I think I've said enough. I give the show a resounding 4 out of 5, due to the small venue size, which made everything that much more up-close-and-personal, the sound which was pretty decent considering, and lets not forget the band's performance itself. I won't penelize Sloan for the lacklustre performance and meagre songwriting abilities of National Anthem. So there you have it, if you haven't seen Sloan yet, you're missing too much. If you have seen them, see them again as many times as you can, you never know when they might "break up" again. I know I'll be standing in line for their next show and the next and the next.