Rural Alberta Advantage with Yukon Blonde at First Ave, Minneapolis, 12/3/17

-
Nils of RAA
I found out Rural Alberta Advantage was playing pretty last minute, through an online ad. I bought a ticket the day of and went solo. The band was incredibly nice, and expressed gratitude toward Minneapolis for being the most supportive US city on their tour the last couple of years. They stopped through the Twin Cities and played at a sold-out Cedar Cultural Center to try out some new tunes in November of last year, which was a great show. They since recorded their album and promoted it all over North America and Europe, and last night was their last American show before heading back to Canada to wrap up the tour.

Paul of RAA
Yukon Blonde, another Canadian band, opened. Their music was at times sort of soul-inspired, but mostly really enjoyable and catchy rock. It's a five-piece band that features three people who seem to share the songwriting (or at least the singing) duties. I'm not sure it's the kind of thing I would listen to on my own, but I enjoyed it live.

I discovered the RAA through the Saddle Creek sampler the year I lived in France, and I walked around listening to it constantly. Their second record became the soundtrack to my volunteer work at the University of Oklahoma's natural history museum, and hearing those tracks conjures images of those days working among towering shelves of pickled reptiles. Those two records, Hometowns and Departing, are both incredible and every song from either one was my favorite last night. There's nothing like the kind of nostalgia music can bring.

RAA puts on one hell of a show, and they're also incredibly nice. I really appreciate that they don't bury the drummer in the back of the setup. And it doesn't hurt that they always
come out and meet every person who wants to meet them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2025 Year in Review

-
Image
 Here’s a quick recap of my highlights for the year 2025. January We began the New Year in Omaha and roundtripped home to Knoxville through an ice storm. I learned to make orecchiette by hand. Construction finally began on my long-awaited lab space at work. February I baked a lot of sourdough using the starter that survived our move home from Australia. I stayed inside a lot with the cat on my lap. I saw Adeem the Artist play the Blue Plate Special in Knoxville and went to Nashville to see Christian Lee Hutson play the Blue Room. I gave a seminar in Pittsburgh, which was fun. Construction continued on the lab. My mom had spinal surgery, necessitating a trip to Oklahoma. March In March we protested unsavory actions by our government, including massive threats to science funding. I saw Bright Eyes in Knoxville and in a cavern in Middle Tennessee and Tulsa with Stephanie. I visited some Cherokee historical sites with my folks in NE OK before I drove home to TN. I stopped in Nashville ...
Read more

2022 in Concerts

-
Image
Living in Perth had many perks, but the biggest downside was the lack of live music. Since moving home from Australia, I've been making up for lost time and seeing as many shows as I can. It was fitting that my first run of shows back was to see Bright Eyes, my longtime fave, who were touring in support of their long-awaited record Down in the Weeds Where the World Once Was , released at the beginning of the pandemic. Here's a list of what I saw in 2022. The Bright Eyes Tour 1. Bright Eyes with Christian Lee Hutson at the Sylvee, Madison, WI 3-25-22 2. Bright Eyes with Christian Lee Hutson at the Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL 3-26-22 3. Bright Eyes with Christian Lee Hutson at the Pageant, Saint Louis, MO 3-30-22 4. Bright Eyes with Christian Lee Hutson at Old Forester's Paristown Hall, Louisville, KY 3-31-22 5. Christian Lee Hutson album release in-store performance at Grimey's in Nashville, TN 4-1-22     Best day ever. We ran into Christian in our hotel in Louisville a...
Read more

What I Read This Year

-
I've been accustomed in my adulthood to reading between 40 and 60 novels a year -- almost entirely science fiction and fantasy. But this year, I spent virtually all of my free time trying to learn Cherokee. It used up all the time an energy I might usually spend on fiction. The books I managed to read this year were largely in support of my language learning, and uncharacteristically and disproportionately skewed toward non-fiction. Here's the list: Cherokee related: Original Teachings: Designed to Stand as One: Early Keetowah Teachings and Traditions by Crosslin Fields Smith Think Cherokee: A Cherokee Language Student Reference by JW Webster Cherokee Reference Grammar by Brad Montgomery-Anderson Cherokee Earth Dwellers: Stories and Teachings of the Natural World by Christopher B. Teuton A Lifetime of Healing by Crosslin Fields Smith Journeying into Cherokee: Help and Encouragement for Learning the Cherokee Language by Ed Fields and Mary Rae Other Non-Fiction: The Frogs and Toa...
Read more