July 30 2014 – Our One Bad Son blitz continues. The band released their latest single called Satellite Hotel just a few days ago, and we reviewed it here and have deemed it the Best Rock Song of 2014 (so far). Writing a One Bad Son review is a labour of love, and let me be straight up from the get go – I really really like this band and their music.
Saturday July 26th marked the third time the band played the GTA in the past week. The previous two shows were at downtown Toronto venues The Horseshoe and Cherry Cola’s – we wrote up those shows and you can check them out here.
20 Amp Soundchild opened the show tonight at Oshawa’s The Moustache Club. The band delivered their usual insanely good set of high energy rock with an Indie twist and the obligatory beards that go with the music these days. The venue was packed with a nice mix of OBS fans and 20 Amp Soundchild fans who by the end of the night were surely fans of the other band as well. As an added treat for old school hip-hop fans the band blended in Biz Markie’s Just A Friend right before going ballistic on the rock side. Well done guys, always a pleasure to see you.
One Bad Son came on with their traditional group ritual in front of drummer Kurt Dahl’s kit, and exploded right into a powerful new tune entitled Vinyl Spin Burner (you can see the video of the performance below). The band’s set consisted of a nice mix of 6 songs from their backcatalogue, 2 cover songs, and 4 new songs from the upcoming album due in Q4 2014.
One Bad Son is a band that defies boundaries and that is what makes them a force to be reckoned with. One minute they deliver a power ballad influenced zinger straight out of the hair metal days of the mid 80’s and the next they deliver a blues dripping trance inducing hit that could have been released in the mid 70’s. Throw in their grungy influenced songs of the 90’s it is easy to see that One Bad Son are giving rock a kick in the ass and taking all the best real music of the last 50 years and transforming it into their own sound.
As a testament to their sound and mass appeal one simply had to look at the audience to understand that OBS is not a one trick pony. Closest to the stage are attractive and usually younger women that want to get in as close as possible. A sort of invisible dividing line separates the slightly older fans that have lost the hunger to cram up against the stage, and at the back of the bar the old rockers that probably have seen the original lineup’s of Led Zeppelin or Guns N’ Roses back in the day. Very interesting to observe the three tiers of fans as most “bar” bands do not have the ability to attract so many demographics. One Bad Son took all their fans and treated them as one with their explosive delivery.
A song that we saw last year called Morningside has now been giving its final name Decades and is yet another new song that will hit the Top 10 in Canada, and perhaps an anthem in Saskatchewan. It is a beautiful song with delivery that ranges from mellow acoustic to raw angry grunge. Wicked highlight of the night! Check it out right here:
Satellite Hotel and Wasting Bullets (watch it here) gave the band a chance to show their varied style yet again with the first song being a bluesy slowburn and the second being a hard rocker in the veign of AC/DC or Guns N’ Roses. The new album will contain 11 songs, and we heard 4 of them tonight which were very well received.
Of course the band played their three hits of It Ain’t Right, Scarecrows, and Retribution Blues and all three were well known by everyone in attendance. Those three songs will go down in history as the foundation that propelled One Bad Son and of course the band executed flawless versions of them tonight.
Covers are a big event at One Bad Son shows and the band delivered Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads along with the encore Baba O’Riley (and if you dont know who that song is originally from you are on the wrong f’king website). Tonight’s versions were harder and stronger than the originals and I love when bands take rock anthems and make them their own. Check out Baba O’Riley here:
To further demonstrate their dedication, unlike any other band we have seen, there was no setlist taped on the floor in front of all the musicians. Clearly they dont expect to forget what song they are playing next, it still amazes me how many young bands have to have a setlist taped at their feet.
What was introduced as the world’s greatest rhythm section consists of Adam Grant aka Granny on Bass and Kurt Dahl aka KD on Drums. Grant has the stature and on stage moves of Krist Novoselic but is a much better bass player. Dahl thrives on the stage and theatrically uses all available tools to emphasize his incredible drumming. KD and Granny ensure that they are not second fiddle to the traditional guitarist/vocalist main star billing of most rock bands. This is something that tonight’s show proved once again – One Bad Son are as good as they are because of the sum of their equal parts.
Guitarist Adam Hicks is a bonafide guitar master who throws out riffs like a man possessed by the spirits of the greats. He quietly steps up to the front of the stage makes a brief statement with his wailing guitar and steps off to the side for Volk to spread more lyrics. I would place him in the same league as Canadian greats Rik Emmett of Triumph, Ed Bernard of Druckfarben and Frank Marino of Mahogany Rush. I really really would like to see an extended Hicks solo live one day where he stays in the spotlight for more than a few seconds.
Shane Volk continues to cement our opinion that he is the most exciting and talented front man in rock these days and if he was around in the 70’s would have immortal status along with Plant, Jagger and Daltrey. Very strong praise indeed but in my humble opinion the ’10s (is that the right name for the decade?) holy trinity of rock front men today are Jim James, Jay Buchanan and Shane Volk. This is one reason My Morning Jacket, Rival Sons, and One Bad Son are my 3 favourite bands of the last 10 years.
In a classy mood the band gave a shout out to Doug Elliott, the program director from 94.9 The Rock who was in attendance. OBS’s comments are something we echo and do thank 94.9 and Doug for supportin real rock. {Ed Note. – Hey Doug how about an annual 94.9 and T-Mak World hosted battle of the bands style event called “Canada’s Got Rock”}
Most of the band has cut their hair back since last time, and the most noticeable style change is Volk who traded in long rocker hair for very short hair. Luckily his haircut did not impact his delivery in the least bit, but I do miss seeing his wailing hair which is a pure throwback to the music they play. OBS play long hair music and their look was perfect for it. The only disappointment for me was the elimination of the previous intro to Moneytrain which was a world class rendition of Led Zeppelin’s In The Evening – in the past the lads would mashup In The Evening and Moneytrain and it was remarkable.
Verdict: 5 out of 5 – One Bad Son Review summary – as good as they are on album, they are first and foremost a live band. Tonight’s show was the best One Bad Son performance we have seen, and we really crave to see the band in front of 10,000+ dripping fans. If the year was somewhere between 1978 and 1983 a sold out Maple Leaf Gardens would have been buzzing from Canada’s hard rock champions tonight.
Tonight’s setlist was:
Vinyl Spin Burner
True Grit
Rustbucket
Wasting Bullets
It Ain’t Right
Decades
Scarecrows
Psycho Killer
Moneytrain
Satellite Hotel
Retribution Blues
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Baba O’Riley
One Bad Son Review and Additional Coverage:
Satellte Hotel Song Review
Review from Horseshoe and Cherry Colas July 2014
Indie On Indie With Calgary’s Open Air
Opening for Rival Sons in Ottawa
Opening for Crash Karma at the Tattoo Rock Parlour
One Bad Son CD review
Adam Grant Interview
Markham show at The Attic
At Cherry Cola’s May 2013
Indie On Indie with TimeGiant
CMW 2013 at the Underground Garage
94.9 The Rock presentation at the Hard Rock Cafe
CMW 2013 at the Hideout
Indie on Indie with The Blue Stones
CMW 2012 at Cherry Cola’s
One Bad Son Emerging Artist Spotlight
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