The Rural Alberta Advantage at Fine Line (2/25/2023)

The frozen, snowy streets of downtown Minneapolis might as well have been a welcome mat for the Toronto-based musicians that played at the Fine Line on Saturday night.

“Wow, there are so many of you,” remarked Georgia Harmer as she looked into the crowd.

She was somewhat taken aback as the Fine Line was at capacity by time she settled into her opening set.

Although new on the scene, she has spent her whole life around music and musicians with her aunt being Canadian singer-songwriter, Sarah Harmer, and her dad being Gord Tough, guitarist for Sarah Harmer and Kathleen Edwards.

Focusing on songs from her debut album Stay in Touch, she only brought along one member from her band, Dylan Burchell on guitar, as they both kept any musical flourishes subdued and nuanced to maintain the focus on Harmer’s lyrics and airy voice.

With the low lighting and singing above a whisper, the audience remained so in tune with the performance, Harmer thanked everyone for keeping any talking to a minimum.

Based on the audiences’ reception she may have already developed a loyal fan base, much like the band that next took the stage.

The Rural Alberta Advantage (RAA) is a mouthful, a name lifted from an email from lead singer Nils Edenloff’s brother who wrote that he was planning to explore “the rural Alberta advantage” on a trip back home to expansive Canadian prairie.

RAA is out on tour promoting their latest EP The Rise. We Heart caught RAA on tour with their debut album Hometowns in September of 2009 at Seventh Street Entry. Even then, there was a loyal following. “The audience is a little older,” wrote Vu. “Beards, button shirts and beer drinkers.”

The audience on Saturday night still skewed towards the three B’s and they were rewarded with a show that can best be described as thunderous. It may be indie folk music but it is charged by Edenloff’s passionate lyrics and infused with a kinetic energy generated by Paul Banwatt on drums and Amy Cole who played everything from keyboards and a foot-pedal Moog to drums, tambourines, maracas, all while providing backup vocals and dancing around the stage through songs like “Beacon”, “Tornado” and “Vulcan”.

RAA took a midway pause to let Edenloff play a song that he wrote called “10ft Tall”. It is a song that he wrote at home during the pandemic with his soon-to-be wife his only muse, critic, cheerleader and eventual fan:

But I was there tucked in your head
Tallying the days singing songs you forget
When you’re finally awake and I’m not tall

A highlight of the evening was a new song that just dropped: “Plague Dogs” an epic interpretation of the same named novel by Richard Adams, the English writer best known for Watership Down.

Plague Dogs the novel is about two dogs escaping a government research facility.

“Plague Dogs” the song is how the world can turn into a dog-eat-dog world.

Even though their songs sometimes steered into bleak landscapes, both Edenloff and Cole took time between songs to thank the crowd for coming to their show. “It has been a really long time since we been here,” said Cole. And through the upheaval and isolation, they were grateful that people were still willing to trudge through the ice and snow to come see them play live music.

Based on the crowd’s reaction it was no trouble at all.

Remaining tour dates: