How to get ahead

I departed from my usual musical tastes, which lie a bit off the beaten track, to check out some more mainstream stuff courtesy of a show put on by radio station The Bear 106.9  at Mavericks. Vancouver blues rockers Head of the Herd have been blowing up lately with a No. 1 single and opening for Guns'n'Roses, and their headlining gig attracted a good-sized crowd for a Wednesday night to the Rideau St. club.

First up were Cold Capital. They're a decent enough local quintet who could stand to sharpen their songwriting and stick a few more riffs in their tunes.



Bass action!



Sons of Stone, another local unit did a much better job. Apart from stepping up the presentation in some Hives-like duds, their lone axeman has some tasty fingerwork on the go.



Their vocalist also knows how to work a microphone.



Head of the Heard also put on a very solid set, featuring a few tunes fom their recorded but-not-yet released second album.



They wrapped things up with an encore performance of The Door's Roadhouse Blues, but before that keyboardist Lydia Hol got to step up to the microphone for one of their newest.



I believe they're now headed back west.