Hue rolled in town on Saturday night to play a show at the Merchant in support of their new album Starting Fires.

Opening up the night was members of Hue playing a mostly duo acoustic set of rock cover songs. For most of the first set Danny and Darcy took to the stage trading places between guitars and the Keyboard. Later on in the set they were joined in with their other fellow band mate Andrew on drums but only for a couple of songs. This was a first for me tonight to hear a cover of Sam Roberts being played live being played by a duo really had a different take on the song. But no Tragically Hip, they joked around earlier about toiling with the idea of playing a Hip cover but as we were talking about their set list almost every possible Hip song which could have been played was being played over the speakers at The Merchant Tap House.  Their cover of Neil Young went over really well with the audience who was still filtering in. The highlight for me during their first set was the harmonies between Danny and Darcie. They explained earlier that they only had a quick test run with the songs and don’t really ever play cover songs at all, but you wouldn’t know it by the harmonies which were coming from the stage. They were able to feed off each other during the set which only added to the songs which they played. Nearing the end of their first set they added a few lines from Coldplay “Yellow” in for a added mix.

 After their first set they stopped for a break for about forty five minutes before they hit the stage again but this time with their bassist Andrew, but they were still missing Jessica who unfortunately was unable to make it to the show. It was Hue’s goal for the night to play their entire new album “Starting Fires”. It didn’t take very long before they had a few audience members up dancing on the floor to their new tunes. Their songs definitely had more of a punch hearing them being played live and also lost a little of the pop sound in them. The title track off the album “Starting Fires” was one of my favourite songs of their second set. The timing came off really nicely throughout the songs but what really hit the high note for me were Danny’s soft vocals and catchy lyrics especially the chorus and the lines “What were you thinking, starting fires? Were you trying to reach the stars?”. I was pleasantly surprised with the audience receptiveness throughout their set, after each song they received the applause which they did deserve. Another fact which I have to make is Danny’s interaction with the audience throughout the set, when someone asked a question or made a comment Danny was sure to make a positive remark back. I started to loose track at how many times he asked the audience to get up to the dance floor. Andrew had a few nice drums solo’s thrown in to the mix every once in a while during their second set. During the set it was up to Andrew and Darcy to entertain the audience for a couple of quick minutes while there was a washroom break during the set. Darcy lead off by playing a soft Neil Young induced echoing guitar solo which did lead into their next song nicely. Darcy and Danny traded spots at the front of the stage during a couple of songs as Danny took over the Keys. It was great to see that part of the focus of Hue was based on the keys which also helped the keys not being lost in behind the drums and guitars. It would be interesting to hear how the entire band sounds live because of the keys only being played throughout for a couple of songs.