Bands at the Grand

The Grand Theatre and the CBC showcased several Alberta talents at the Bands at the Grand event, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The shows were filmed for future release on CBC television. I had to work Tuesday, but I caught the fantastic Wednesday night performances by Colleen Brown, Tim Hus, Kris Demeanor and His Crack Band, and The Dudes. Host Tim Tamashiro, a very entertaining nose-harpist and funny man, kept the crowd lively in between performances.

Colleen Brown opened with her quirky ‘70s-style love songs. The fantastic sound system at the Grand was a great match with Colleen's beautiful crystal clear vocals.

Tim Hus performed twangy truck-driver, oil-rigger country songs and told tongue-in-cheek stories about his truck-driver, oil-rigger country songs. Normally, I'm not a fan of twangy country, but Hus' group was alright.

Kris Demeanor was as awesome a word-smith as ever. My favorite song of the evening was One Shoe. One Shoe documents the freezing deaths of several Saskatchewan First Nations -- deaths caused by certain RCMP officers habitually dumping drunk Natives in prairie fields during -40 degrees Celsius weather. The first time I heard Kris perform One Shoe it was acoustically last Fall at the Alberta Arts Days Sound Off on the Arts. The driving force of the Crack Band added a new dimension of drama and power to the song. Chantal Vitalis, lead guitarist for Kris Demeanor's Crack Band, served up some very tasty guitar licks throughout their set.

The Dudes finished the show with high energy rock with most of the energy emanating from their very high test, highly entertaining drummer. I could have photographed him all night.

CBC will combine filming from the Tuesday (March 30th) and Wednesday (March 31st) shows and broadcast the performances sometime this July or August.

Links:

• Bands at the Grand (Flickr photos)
• CBC Presents Bands at the Grand
• Colleen Brown
• Tim Hus
• Kris Demeanor
• The Dudes