Date of show: February 26, 2013
Written by: Chiara DiAngelo
To celebrate the release of their long-awaited second record White Paint, Hollerado threw a party at The Rivoli, inviting their closest friends, family, as well as some fans lucky enough to score tickets. With smoke billowing, the band took the stage, Jake Boyd’s bass drum appropriately painted white. Frontman Menno Versteeg expressed the band’s gratitude to be able to spend the release day with friends and family and thanked the crowd for “sticking around” for the four years it took them to put out the follow up to Record in a Bag.
Their set really got going with the explosive “Juliette,” complete with a light show, extended instrumental jam, and drum solo. Versteeg even jumped from Jake’s drum kit. Before transitioning to some new material, Versteeg described his experience reading the first review of White Paint, that subsequently first made him cry, then drink profusely, and finally puke all over his pants. With this album displaying growth and maturity to many of the song lyrics, especially those related to his deceased grandfather, Versteeg took the opportunity to share the stories behind many of the songs, including the tale of tortoise “Lonesome George,” and his experience garbage collecting while on drugs described in “Fresno Chunk,”
Noting that it also happened to be guitarist Nick Boyd’s birthday, bassist Dean Switzer somehow got wrangled into singing “Happy Birthday” to him solo before they went into their bright splashy pop single “Pick Me Up.” Inviting up friend Anna Jarvis to play cello added an element of heaviness to the ridiculously catchy “So It Goes.” Ignoring the “No Confetti” sign, they caught us off guard with the confetti guns going off before most anyone had their cameras ready to snap a photo of the white flakes floating to the floor. Jarvis stuck around for set closer “Americanarama.” Not wanting to miss out on the action, Fred Penner also came out to contribute on the tambourine. The sense of exuberance at the album finally coming to fruition culminated in a climatic venue-wide singalong before the band left the stage.
Opting not to come back out for an encore, the band chose rather to spend the rest of the night hanging out and mingling with those near and dear to them. The performance was more low-key than most Hollerado experiences, perhaps because it was mostly invites rather than fans in attendance and many songs were being played live for the first time. The show still gave us a taste of the new album as well as the opportunity to hear firsthand the stories behind many of them. And really, it only fueled our excitement to see them again – after a couple of smaller headlining shows, they’ll be hitting the road for an arena tour with Billy Talent.
The night began with Fred Penner – yes, THAT Fred Penner. While the stage was lacking the log from his television show, the nostalgic factor was high and his enthusiasm for playing music immediately had the entire room similarly enthused. Greeting the audience with, “Hi kids, how are you? This isn’t weird at all!” and indicating that participation was the key to his existence, Penner soon had us all feeling like innocent children again, grinning from ear to ear as we sang the words to songs like “Saskatoon Berry Pie” and “Sandwiches” that were somehow still locked in our memory.
Penner also bestowed upon us some life lessons, teaching everyone how to sign a Navajo greeting, and then the corresponding translation in English, French and Spanish. Maybe it was the fact that we were all loosening up thanks to the free Steam Whistle, because for a crowd filled mostly with media at this point, no one was too cool to take part in the activity, no questions asked or urging needed.
After briefly performing the chorus to “The Bump” by request, his set ended with us all meowing right along to “The Cat Came Back.” Penner even threw in a little Ray Charles (“hit the road cat”), K-OS (“check out the cat in the bucket”), and some cat-less “Happy Together” by The Turtles. Bands take note: if you want crowd involvement, you might consider inviting Fred Penner to be a part of your show.
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