Thursday, October 20, 2011
The Daredevil Christopher Wright
I started off my HPX Day 3 at St. Matthew’s United Church once again. The first band of the night was The Daredevil Christopher Wright, made up of brothers Jon Sunde and Jason Sunde, as well as Jesse Edgington. With beautiful harmonies accompanying the sweet, warm folk this Wisconsin 3-piece creates, I was immediately impressed. The crowd seemed to feel the same way.
The Crackling, the musical project of Kenton Loewen, took the stage next, along with the rest of the musicians that make up Dan Mangan’s backing band. There is something in Loewen’s heartfelt stage presence that brings the audience near. “Keep Me Drunk” stands out as one of the songs of the set, as I believe this is the song that drew out Dan Mangan to play on drums and got the crowd to sing “I hear what you say” over and over.
The crowd was anxious for Dan Mangan, especially after his appearance with The Crackling. Dan Mangan certainly did not disappoint, bringing along new tunes from the newly released Oh Fortune. The band makes new songs like “Post War Blues” quite exciting, but it’s favourites from Nice, Nice, Very Nice had the crowd singing along. There is something about Mangan’s charm that has the crowd enveloped, but it’s his voice that really reels the crowd in. There is never anything disappointing about a Dan Mangan set.
After a some beautiful folk, I ended up checking out New Jersey’s Titus Andronicus at Olympic Community Hall. Patrick Stickles, guiding the energy and sound with his gritty vocals, fronts the band. The band drew quite a crowd, and had the crowd singing/shouting along with anthemic lyrics such as “You will always be a loser” and “The enemy is everywhere”. The show also happened to be one of the last from guitarist/violinist Amy Klein, a realization that made me happy to have seen the set.
Closing out the night were Oregon’s The Thermals, a band that has been around for nearly a decade. The band 3-piece boasts a post-pop punk sound with Hutch Harris’ vocals defining that sound. While much of the crowd were certainly there for Titus Andronicus, The Thermals drew out some of the older punk rockers.
buying shots for bands 
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