THUNDER BAY – The Nova Scotian in me is pretty darn proud of Sloan.
When they burst onto the scene in the early 1990s, music insiders started labeling them as the next big thing, as they stumbled over each other trying to figure out what came next after Nirvana and Grunge. Halifax, it seems, was to be the new Seattle.
It didn’t quite work out that way. They didn’t take the world by storm and become a global phenomenon.
But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty of success along the way.
The band, with its interchangeable all-for-one and one-for-all lineup of Chris Murphy, Jay Ferguson, Andrew Scott and Patrick Pentland, has endured for nearly three decades, creating their own brand of Beatles-infused power pop magic, a deep catalogue that still gets plenty of play on rock stations from coast to coast.
On Wednesday night the band returned to Thunder Bay, the second stop on a tour that opened on Tuesday night in Sudbury.
For those in the other 47 cities with scheduled Sloan shows between now and Canada Day, expect a heavy dose of songs from the band’s forthcoming album 12 – aptly named because it’s their 12th record – a set list light on the radio hits, but jam-packed with plenty of deep cuts dating back to 1992’s Smeared, Sloan’s first full length album.
Wednesday’s set featured 10 of the dozen songs from 12, and opened with the albums first two songs, the upbeat Spin Our Wheels and the throwback All of the Voices, which several reviewers say pays homage to the heady days of Nirvana and the grunge rock movement.
All four musicians took turns on vocals throughout the night, Murphy jumping back on drums when it was Scott’s turn in the spotlight.
That’s pretty much been Sloan’s modus operandi since they formed in 1991.
It works, so why change now?
The familiar sounds of Who Taught You To Live Like That, from 2006’s Never Hear the End Of It, gave the few hundred or so fans who packed the bar a taste of the familiar, followed by 2014’s Carried Away and Witch’s Wand, from 2008’s Parallel Play.
Sloan stuck mainly to its post-20th century catalogue throughout the night, offering up on three songs from before the turn of the century – 1999’s Losing California, 1996’s The Good In Everyone, the encore finale, and 1992’s Sugartune.
“This one’s for the fans, a deep cut,” said Murphy, who twice thanked an anonymous cupcake donor who supplied the band with a pre-show sugar rush, as he announced Sugartune.
The band didn’t disappoint in their second set, an hour-long frenzy that included six more songs from 12, The Other Man and If It Feels Good Do It, which closed the pre-encore portion of the show. They returned to the stage for a two-song encore than opened with The Rest of My Life, the sing-a-long song the crowd was eagerly anticipating most of the night.
Sloan heads to Winnipeg on Thursday night and will be in St. Paul, Minn. on June 24 at the Turf Club.
Here's the set list. Songs in bold are from Sloan's forthcoming album 12, scheduled for release on Friday.
Set 1
- Spin our Wheels
- All of the Voices
- Who Taught You to Live Like That (2006)
- Carried Away (2014)
- Witch’s Wand (2008)
- Gone for Good
- Living with the Masses (2006)
- She’s Slowing Down Again (2011)
- Losing California (1999)
- Right to Roam
- Follow the Leader (2011)
Set 2
- Don’t Stop (If It Feels Good Do It)
- Beverly Terrace (2011)
- The Day Will Be Mine
- The Other Man (2001)
- Essential Services
- Live On (2003)
- Year Zero
- Blackout (2006)
- 44 Teenagers
- Will I Belong (2006)
- Sugartune (1992)
- Step on it Jean (2003)
- Wish Upon a Satellite
- If It Feels Good Do It (2001)
Encore
- Rest of My Life (2003)
- The Good in Everyone (1996)
