Elliott Brood & the 'Buckles

NQ Arbuckle came out of the gates well, and I was into their sound despite the twang. They even marked the Remembrance Day occasion by singing a song with the lyrics lifted from a poem written about fighting in the trenches in WWI. After the fourth song or so I began to grow a little weary of their sound - perhaps the amount of country I can take in a night had been used up by that point. They continued with a bit of ramblin' country-ish tunes that had a few excessive breakdowns, and sure did wear down my appreciation for them.

Elliott Brood opened with a mostly instrumental - with the banging drums that would be a prominent feature of their set all night. For a three-piece they really create a large sound on their assortment of folky instruments including ukes, banjos, acoustic guitars, tambos and harmonicas. With that distinct Brood voice (I can't really describe it - just listen to a song) they chugged through a thorough set of new and used songs from their collection. The R3-popularized tunes that I knew well such as Without Again and The Bridge stood out and were excellent. Other notable selections were Second Son, and President's Dead - but the biggest standout of the evening was a romping rendition of the Elliott Brood classis "Oh Alberta!" which ends hilariously. For their final song (of a 90+ minute set) they busted out a huge sack full of percussion instruments for the crowd to play along that included pots, spoons, tambourines and all sorts of other dollar-priced goodies. This made this tune a lot of fun and the fun continued into the encore which consisted of the new album "Mountain Meadows" opening track, followed up by another great tune (that I'd forgotten about til they started it) Miss You Now. Despite the show's length I was rather entertained and continually pleasantly surprised as they broke out song after song that would reenergize the crowd.