The River

Caught Wil and Shaun Verreault at the UBC Pit Pub last night. They both played solo sets.

The first band that came on to open the evening was some local duo. Didn't catch their name, nor could I make out any of their lyrics. One of them played bass and sang/mumbled while the other one was behind the drum kit. The drummer was decent. You have to admire the other guy for trying to strum out power chords on an acoustic bass! The sound hole on the bass was unique since it was located off to the side rather than under the strings.

Wil took the stage next and displayed his awesome guitar work. I first saw the Calgary based musician perform when he opened for Matt Good during the Fall '04 tour, and have become a fan of his music ever since. His songs definitely need to be seen live to be fully appreciated. His ability to break strings through intense strumming is amazing. He didn't break any strings last night, but his craft is still a sight to see.



At Wil's merch table, he offered neat bracelets and earrings made out of broken guitar strings from past shows. They were pretty cool. Some highlights from his 55min set included Sweet Rebecca, 15 Years, and Honey Pie.

Shaun Verreault came on shortly afterwards and displayed his vocal range and talented guitar skills. The Wide Mouth Mason singer is quite an established blues guitarist, and showed it throughout his performance with excellent scales, progressions, and solos. He recently recorded a solo acoustic record for this tour, consisting of new songs and reworked Wide Mouth Mason songs. A lot of the new tracks were recorded only minutes after they were written, and on their first or second take. Only 200 copies of this record were produced.



On this night, Shaun pulled out great versions of Smile, Companion (Lay Me Down), and Midnight Rain. During the set, he used a looper to play and record some rhythm riffs, then layer it with lead riffs. He also did it vice versa looping a lead riff, then playing rhythm. That was neat. Another thing Shaun did was use a wah wah pedal on his acoustic guitar. His vocal skills were quite impressive, though he does like to hit a lot of high notes throughout the set. He played for 1hr 10mins and mentioned that him and Wil would be back on stage to play a few more songs together.



The combination of Wil and Shaun on stage feeding off each other and trading licks was incredible. Both are such established guitarists and singers and the energy was fantastic. They played Both Hands, an awesome version of Ease Your Mind and a heartstopping cover of Hendrix's Little Wing. This was followed by On Top Of The Dome, and Mama to cap off the evening. The final set together lasted 45mins and finished past the regular curfew time at the Pit.