Andy Siegel
Special to the Review
Last weekend was one of the best all ski season for live music in Revelstoke, this town is very fortunate to have two amazing bar Managers (Jen at Last Drop and Ryan at Traverse) who do such a great job bringing these bands and DJ’s to town while creating a great safe party environment for evening entertainment downtown. It was not easy finding energy to attend so many of these events after snowboarding in the sunshine everyday but here’s a quick rundown of the shows I was able to attend:
Pineo & Loeb w/ Inc. Line at the Last Drop – Thursday
Thanks to, as I refer to him, “Mr. DJ” Jordan assisting to bring these guys to town Revelstoke was treated to their first time hearing Pineo & Loeb who are on their Western Canada tour from Halifax, Nova Scotia.
This duo was unique because they seemed to play a different style of music than many of the DJ’s I’ve seen this winter, it mostly consisted of collaborations and remixes with electronic dance plus hip hop. As described in my preview for this show these guys were upbeat and funky with some cool background screen videos to provide eye candy while listening to them.
It was one of the warmest sunny days of the spring so I heard about a number of outdoor parties that night which kept the crowd small but a devoted number people to the local DJ scene seemed to enjoy it dancing till they stopped spinning at 2 a.m.
Hopefully next time they roll through town there’s more support because they played a solid few hours of funky music.
Invertigo at The Last Drop – Friday and Saturday
I first heard Invertigo from Calgary a few months ago when they played to a packed house with some of the highest energy I’ve seen in town all winter for live music not DJ’s.
This four piece rock band plays originals plus numerous songs of classic rock favorites that always gets the crowd going and usually singing along as well. Their lead singer Reed has an incredible voice that reaches perfect high pitches reminding me a lot of Axl Rose from Guns & Roses and Freddie Mercury from Queen.
He’s got the long straight rocker hair down to his hips which helps add to their on stage persona since he knows how to whip it around perfectly similar to many bands in the 80s they play tunes of.
Their lead guitarist Shaddy is so talented too you won’t see many musicians with his level of skill play Revelstoke, this guy would be rich and famous if the year was 1983 he’s incredible in my opinion.
Not to be forgotten is their bass player Duncan and drummer Keaton, despite being a bit more in the background they are so solid fitting in perfectly with their lead guitarist and singer. I didn’t catch much of their Friday show due to a longer than normal pre-night-out nap to get energy for the evening but made it for most of Saturdays gig, this featured many of their standard classics from Guns and Roses, Queen, and a few classics from Soundgarden which they dedicated to Chris Cornell mentioning the former lead singer who died by suicide in 2017.
I thought the highlight of their show were the two Led Zeppelin songs they played, the second one Rock N Roll was amazing because they invited onstage Steve the lead singer from the warm up band Open Air to join in on vocals and he did a fantastic job imitating Robert Plants voice for this classic tune.
SkiiTour at Traverse – Friday
Thursday night I saw local DJ Wesside at Pineo & Loeb and we discussed when writing previews or reviews of shows I should be aware to not over exaggerate the events.
On that note I’m not afraid to say that the Skii Tour show was in my opinion the high energy DJ event of the winter so far this ski season.
Right when I walked in the Traverse I could sense what I refer to as a magical atmosphere coming together, there was an eclectic energy in the air from the packed house waiting for the show to start.
I didn’t have a creative costume on like many people there that evening but luckily found a pair of white goggles in my closet before going out that night which were perfect with the black lights on the dance floor.
I’d never worn ski goggles to a dress up show but for some reason it was so hilarious to have them on when dancing maybe because most people can’t see who you are so it didn’t matter if I made a fool of myself.
There were so many long time local legendary skiers / snowboarders I’ve known since riding RMR the last 11 years and everyone seemed to be having way too much fun, the energy was off the hook it seemed to blow the roof off the place as we used to say in my concert touring days.
Ski Tour has had a great following in Revelstoke since their first show here, I’m not exactly sure when that was but they used to play the Regent before Traverse opened they’ve been coming to town for a long time and always bring their super upbeat high energy level when spinning downtown. I had way too much fun with the crowd all night to remember what genre of music they played, but I must say they never let the dance floor stop pumping for a minute people seemed to be going off right till the last song it was unreal.
Chuck The DJ at Revelstoke Mountain Resort – Saturday
I thought it was going to rain Saturday and was so tired from not getting to bed till 6 a.m. that morning from an after hours party but when I saw the sun hitting the slopes decided to rally up for last two hours of riding the soft slush.
One thing I like so much about shredding during spring time at Revelstoke Mountain Resort is on weekends they have DJ’s playing in the plaza between the Rockford and MacKenzie Common bars.
A few weeks ago a solid crowd of locals came out to support local DJ Yanimal with a great dance scene, unfortunately they were not present for this event and out of town guests usually seem to shy to dance or are too tired from our 5,620 vertical mountain to get up and groove to the music.
I did want to mention this show though because I’ve never seen or heard about Chuck The Dj who’s local in town, I thought his entire selection of music was outstanding check him out next time if possible he’s playing RMR again April 6.
Lazy Syrup Orchestra at Traverse – Saturday
I had low expectations going to this show on LSO’s “Marchrooms Tour” after Friday’s epic night with SkiiTour and didn’t know much about them until my friend local music expert Melody told me on the chairlift that they were not just Dj’s but incorporated a saxophone player with conga / rapper too.
I also had no idea that the DJ in this trio was Duncan from The Funk Hunters which made sense once the show got going because these guys were so amazing.
Despite many people being really tired from Friday night a great crowd showed up and they had plenty of energy to pack the dance floor, once again Traverse delivered with back to back shows that had everyone so pumping I was not sure it could happen two nights in a row.
Lazy Syrup Orchestra amazed me with their combination of scratch style DJ tunes, live saxophone playing, plus a conga / rapper as well. They kept it funky all night never letting the energy die down once, and when trying to wrap it up at 1:45 a.m. the crowd was not going anywhere demanding encores to finish the night. Duncan was on point introducing the first song of the encore as an inspiration to keep it safe and not drink and drive, it was a perfect song selection remix version of Supetramps Take The Long Way Home to get everyone singing along.
LSO then ended the night with such a cool version of a Fleetwood Mac remix which I thought was so awesome, I have no idea how they thought of such a great combo of two classic songs.
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