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| Scott Holiday of Rival Sons – London, Canada February 2013 |
February 18, 2013 – As regular readers are aware, Rival Sons have become one of our favorite bands. Rival Sons are a quartet that hail from Long Beach, California. They’ve been around for about 5 years now and have 4 recordings under their belt. They’re currently on tour in North America (primarily Canada) before heading back to Europe. This tour is in support of their new album Head Down which will officially be released in North America on Mar 21, 2013, but was released in Europe last year and in fact was our number 5 album on our Top 10 Albums of 2012 article. T-Mak World also caught their special 4 song acoustic set, presented by 94.9 The Rock, at The Hard Rock Café in downtown Toronto a few days earlier and we were blown away.
The shows in Toronto and Hamilton a few days earlier had sold out fast and we were left ticketless. Solution: T-Mak World decided it’s time for another road trip. We were lucky enough to purchase tickets to the London Ontario show at Norma Jean’s before they sold out. After driving from Toronto through another February winter weather event, we arrived at Norma Jean’s. One could feel the excitement in the building as the two opening bands started their sets. Buffalo Brothers, a local band from London that has been around for a while, started the night off with a sound that would be best compared to the Black Crowes.
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| Jacquie Neville of The Balconies – London, Canada February 2013 |
Up next, The Balconies, a Toronto trio originally from Ottawa, were the warm up for Rival Sons. While this Indie band may have roots outside of rock, with 2 members meeting as classical music students, the garage pop rock sound isn’t the typical “Indie” sound. We last caught The Balconies at NXNE in the backroom of the Cameron House where they played a very different acoustic set. Lead singer and guitarist Jacquie Neville’s high energy stage presence, sexuality and haunting vocals along with brother Steve’s bass lines and pounding drumming of Liam Jaeger won a few new fans in London with a loud, rocking and entertaining set. A pleasant surprise to an evening that we already expected to be great!
More photos of The Balconies here.
The Balconies have been playing with Rival Sons throughout this leg in Canada and are off to SXSW in March where they can get re-acquainted with Rival Sons before coming home for their March 21 show at Lee’s Palace during Canada Music Week.
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| Jay Buchanan of Rival Sons – London, Canada February 2013 |
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| Jay Buchanan of Rival Sons – London, Canada February 2013 |
The only distraction from the very charismatic front man was guitarist Scott Holiday’s numerous guitar licks and solos that make him one of the best guitarists alive today and will, in time, place him on the list of all time rock guitarists.
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| Scott Holiday of Rival Sons – London, Canada February 2013 |
The highlight of the night was Manifest Destiny Pt 1 which is an amazing hypnotic song that words cannot do justice. In baseball parlance, Manifest Destiny Pt. 1 is a filthy curveball. You must hear, see and experience this epic song that is one of the best in decades for anyone that grew up with Zeppelin in their musical DNA.
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| Robin Everhart of Rival Sons – London, Canada February 2013 |
Michael Miley got his chance to shine during what normally would have been part of the encore. But as Buchanan noted that’s not what they do, they’re not encore people, who make it sound like they’re giving you something that was not planned, when in fact it was planned all along. We could not agree more with that sentiment. For those at Norma Jean’s, the band rewarded the audience to an extra song from their EP, Soul, after the scheduled setlist was complete.
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| Michael Miley of Rival Sons – London, Canada February 2013 |
If one can have a disappointment about the night, it would be the fact that this kind of night will likely not happen again. The ability to see the band up close in a small venue, view the set list and their setup and interact with them afterwards isn’t likely to be repeated on their next tour. After the show the guys from Rival Sons came out to meet with the audience, hang around with the opening bands, hug a few adoring fans, sign some autographs and just introduce themselves to their fans. During the informal meet and greet with the band after the show, guitarist Scott Holiday told us Manifest Destiny Pt. 1 didn’t have any special inspiration, he just came up with it on the spot and it was laid down in one take. This makes this song even more remarkable.
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| Scott Holiday of Rival Sons – London, Canada February 2013 |
Setlist:
- Pressure and Time
- Burn Down Los Angeles
- Gypsy Heart
- Wild Animal
- You Want To
- Until the Sun Comes
- Manifest Destiny Part 1
- Torture
- Jordan
- Tell Me Something
- All Over the Road
- All the Way
- Face of Light Keep On Swinging
- Soul
Videos:
Wild Animals
You Want To
Check back later for additional videos from the show.
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