Sloan!

Sloan at the Phoenix. 

Julian and I were fortunate enough to see Sloan (the 'slow ones') play a concert last night at The Phoenix club. The Phoenix is just a half a block from where I live, and I'm thankful for that luxury because I couldn't have walked home from the Air Canada Centre, had they been playing there.

I think standing in one spot for 2.5 hours is very unhealthy for people like me. My feet and knees were numb by the time the concert ended. Walking out of the club was challenging because I felt like I was walking on wooden legs....but my eyes and ears were happy.

Sloan delivered an excellent, full-on alt-rock performance. As they are reputed to do, they switched instruments a number of times during the show without musical sacrifice (i.e. the drummer played guitar, the guitarist play bass, the bassist played drums). Impressive. All members of the band took a swing at lead singing too which brought a Neilson 4 Flavours sort of richness to the performance. This band of depth was formed in 1991 and it shows (interpret that as you will, but it was meant to be a sincere compliment). They are proof that there's cool life after 40.

The only downside to the concert, apart from my lower extremity numbness, was the proximity of others to me during this sold out show. It seemed like the dude in front of me kept inadvertently inching back towards me. As he was drinking non-stop during the performance, I'm sure he was unaware of his invasion of my space. As there was someone behind me, I had nowhere to go. It wasn't so bad until he started to thrust his head forward and back to the music. On the backswing I came close to getting a mouthful of hair each time. His head was just inches away. I was also concerned about losing a tooth or two as I was in a perilous reverse coco-butt (RCB) situation.

To lose a tooth or two would have been a great shame as Sloan had me smiling for most of the evening. The crowd was full of 25 to 40 year olds for the most part, though there was no shortage of older gentlemen such as me. I'd estimate that there was a 60/40 male-female split. What more can I say? Glad that I was there. To see a video clip of last night's show, click on today's image. Note: you'll see Julian in the video. He's the dude wearing the red t-shirt and standing about 8 feet in front of the stage!