Wolf Parade thrills with surprise Cowichan Valley show

Celebrated indie band warms up for NYC with Cobble Hill performance.

Kevin Rothbauer Citizen

If you’re preparing for a five-night residency at New York City’s legendary Bowery Ballroom, there’s no better place to warm up than the Cobblestone Pub.

Billed as “Del Scorcho,” Canadian indie rock heavyweights Wolf Parade — several of whose members call the Cowichan Valley home — played just their second show in five years at the Cobble Hill watering hole on Thursday night, a day after making a surprise appearance under the same moniker in Nanaimo.

The Vancouver Island shows are Wolf Parade’s first since 2011. The vaunted quartet — Spencer Krug, Dan Boeckner, Dante DeCaro and Arlen Thompson — played a 90-minute set heavily weighted toward 2005’s Apologies to the Queen Mary and 2008’s At Mount Zoomer, but sprinkled with new material as well.

The band will play the Bowery Ballroom on May 17-21, Lee’s Palace in Toronto on May 24-26, and the Scala in London on June 14-15. A deluxe reissue of Apologies to the Queen Mary dropped on Friday, and a new record, EP4, came out on Tuesday.

 

Cowichan Valley Citizen