A concert on a Sunday night? Might as well say I was out on a school night but alas, that's the way it goes. It's also one of the perks of being an "adult" - one bad night out a little extra late and guess what? I didn't explode or turn into a pumpkin (though I did find it a little more difficult to get out of bed this morning). There was good reason for it though. A few weeks ago I discovered that Band of Skulls was coming into town but the Saturday show sold out in the blink of an eye. Thankfully, Special K wielded her magical ticket aquiring abilities and we scored tickets to the second show which was added for Sunday night.

We started off with dinner at the Lennox Pub (the food was great) before heading to Venue, a place which is quickly becoming a great spot for seeing up-and-coming bands. The night started off with a great set from California band Saint Motel whose pop/punk tunes had me up and moving. Their set was accompanied by a video (which the band created themselves) of Vancouver "stuff" including Fin, Canucks footage, an assortment of trippy sci-fi classic movies ("Barbarella" and "Logan's Run") followed up by porn-footage which had been doodled to cover up any of the bits folks might find offensive. It was immensely amusing (mostly because everyone knew exactly what was going on) and a nice touch though really unnecessary as the guys really rocked it. I'm looking forward to checking out more of their stuff.

A Montreal group called Silver Starling took to the stage next and frankly, they may as well have had some dude pumping music from the DJ booth. It's not that they were bad but their sound really wasn't working for me and certainly didn't fit either the opening act or Band of Skulls.


Shortly after 9, the head liners took the stage and rocked out some seriously great tunes. The first time I checked out a picture of the band I remember thinking that they looked like Southern rockers and I knew little about them other than to know that they met in College. I was a little surprised when singer/guitarist Russell Marsden opened his mouth and a string of barely recognizable English, complete with an accent marking him as clearly from "across the pond", came streaming out. Shocker - another awesome Brit band. And I can't go without mentioning bassist Emma Richardson who commands the stage. That girl's got serious "don't mess with me 'cause I can kick your ass" vibes. I dig.


It was an awesome show and I'd most definitely see these guys again. And if you're curious as to what you missed, here's just a taste (they closed with this tune):