Yukon Dawn and Calgary Gold

A solid night of live music in Guelph began in the not-as-sweaty-as-can-be Attic (literally a house attic). With free-freezies to keep us cool, Yukon Dawn, a folk project from Noah 23 (who usually acts as Guelph's emcee extraordinaire), attempted to keep things pretty chill as well. Noah got things started to a sparse but merry crowd... with only his slightly out of tune acoustic guitar, the colour of the insides of a blood-orange. However it was his voice that was the instrument of note for this show. To begin with his voice is not what you would think of as a natural singing voice, but that is part of what makes it unique, and the differing styles he employs furthers this uniqueness. Not only would he vary his pitch and volume, but Noah changed up his cadence, even occasionally spitting lyrics at his usual rap-speed, added some gravel and generally kept things interesting with these variations. It was a loose set of strummed guitar ditties that alternated between originals and covers including Silver Jets, (Guelph's own) Stu Gunn, Smog and even Springsteen. As I have only had the opportunity to hear him live (never recorded) I've was happy to finally be afforded the opportunity to take in his lyrics at this folk pace. They were clever and explain in part why he is given such respect in the hip hop world. To finish off the fairly brief (25min or so) set, Yukon Dawn performed an abbreviated version of the Pixies' Gouge Away. As a creative foray into the folk world I don't think that Noah is doing himself, or his listeners, any harm.

Lorrie Matheson, along with his head of curly hair (apparently due to a long running contest), are touring from Calgary where he admits he has been a bit of a recluse - focusing on writing and recording music, but in doing so neglecting playing live. This showed only briefly, as he was forced to re-record some loops for his very first song - but after that things were on track. Those loops consisted of a bunch of picking and scratching at the guitar strings to make some relatively unorthodox noises, over which he then started playing the guitar normally, singing (with a regular and reverb mic) and adding a dash of harmonica. I was preparing for an eclectic set based on this, but after the first song the looping and experimental stuff was kept to a minimum - and this allowed the audience to focus on the songwriting, which was in his best interest. Lorrie has penned some excellent songs, especially those written from others' perspectives, such as the low-income blue-collared workers in his home province of Alberta in Falling Down Sober. Another great example he claimed was pieced together from clips of an overheard conversation between a lone-drunk and a barkeep. This he turned into I May Not Find the Answer in this Beautiful Bottle, but when I Get to the Bottom, I Hope to Forget the Question which also included the lyrical gem "I know the first five drinks, well, they weren’t free, but goddamn, they sure make me feel that way." All of this was sung with a strong voice over sure guitar plucking. The set was solid and I had to pry myself out of there in order to meet people on time for the Sunparlour Players show happening immediately following. (Okay I was still 15 minutes late because I wanted to see as much of Lorrie as possible).