Flashback: Rural Alberta Advantage at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (25 Sep 2009)

This was the same night as Arctic Monkeys… Both shows were completely packed, and you could hardly see the stage all the way in the back.

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I headed over to 7th Street to catch The Love Language, who Kate II saw a few months ago. She described the band as a “six-member troop hailing from Raleigh, North Carolina”. Well, guess what? They’ve gained another band member along the way, they are now seven people on the very tiny, tiny 7th Street stage.

Between the two keyboardists, three guitars, one bass, one drum, they often explode with very loud melodies … so loud that maybe it blew out one of their amp – which was quickly replaced for their last three songs on their set.

 

Compared to the massive youth crowd of the 800lb Monkey, The Rural Alberta Advantage is tamer. Their audience is a little older (beards, button shirts, beer-drinkers) and I was impressed at how many people knew the RAA songs, as I was told by Kyle that when the RAA came here a few months ago that it was only half-full.

Being a cover lover, I was obviously keen on the “S.O.S.” (Abba) and “Eye of the Tiger” (Survivor) covers. The audience seem to really dig “The Dethbridge in Lethbridge”. As for the encore, they didn’t really leave the stage. Instead, on the last song, all three band members went into the audience and started singing “Goodnight”.

At first, without a mic, it was hard to hear singer Paul Banwatt, but as the audience shush to hear the vocals – it was pretty intimate. I suppose that they usually end their set this way (especially with loads of people), as they seem to know what they were doing when the final song came on.

So as ‘man on the scene’, both are fine bands, but both also cater to very different audiences. If you get a chance to see either band, they’re definitely worth seeing, if you don’t mind that they are both somewhat popular.

PS, no photographs, due to lack of a photo pass – but enjoy this rare vu-art instead.