Shortwave with James Young and My Dad Vs Yours
James Young started the night off to playing for a few friends and the members of Shortwave and My Dad Vs Yours. The lack of attendance didn’t seem to bother James at all as he started to play his set. James is originally from Vancouver and moved to Kingston for School. So we got to hear songs which had an influence of the West Coast. His definite strength throughout his set was his vocals, I was taken a little astray by how familiar his vocals were to great artists such as Jason Mraz and Steven Page. During James first song Dreams is where I first noticed the Jason Mraz similarities, the tempo of the song was somewhat similar but it was James vocals which took the direction where the song needed to go. By the second song “It’s You” James changed his vocals to sound similar of Steven Page. James kept the tempo upscale throughout the first two song by the third song “What Comes Next” he changed the tempo and slowed it down a little bit. For the vocals in this song they were a little heavier than the first two songs. James played for about half an hour and finished his set off with his song “Open Up”.
While My Dad Vs. Yours was setting up I noticed that they only had only one microphone set up on stage and it was set off to the very front of the stage. While the rest of the band was setting up their instruments The drummer started up the projector which was placed at the left side of the stage and shot the rolling movie of images to the white curtain which he put up behind him. To effectively show off the images the rest of the stage was pretty much in the dark. Throughout their set the images were really random and didn’t match to anything which was happening on stage. I was still surprised that their entire set was instrumental not one word was spoken the entire set except for thanking the audience for being there and to have a look at their merch table. During their sound check there was one song which had a really catchy guitar riff in it. This song happened to be the first song which they played. The song started off with a distorted high pitched noise, and a little slow getting into the main riff of the song. During the second song there was a women who was trying to guide Geoff in how to work his soundboard, which was quite comical because she was really just waving her hand in the air and pointing down to the ground. All Geoff had to do was tell the guitarists to turn their amp down a little bit and she was happy with that. The guys were playing songs from their newly released album Little Symphonies. Throughout their set I almost found myself wondering what their songs would sound like with vocals, but I really couldn’t figure out how you would be able to add vocals to their songs. They songs sound pretty good for the most part but I really wasn’t in the mood to listen to a forty minute constant jam set.
Shortwave finished off the night and hit the stage around twelve. A Few more people had filtered in during the break so they were not playing to an empty room. I first caught the sounds of Shortwave a couple of years ago when I reviewed their EP. I was looking forward in hearing what the new album brought for us. The guys have already have had a little commercial success with their new album called The Skyline Verses. Shortwave opened up their set with a song from their fist Ep called Sid. I was a little surprised that they didn’t just stick to play the songs off of their newer album. A couple of songs which were on their last EP did make it to the new album. The guys were well spread out across the stage and were left putting the keyboards off the side of the stage. I really liked the wide variety of guitar pedals which the guys brought up on stage. One of my favourite pedals and sounds which they used was the Cry Baby. I am always reading and hearing about the Cry Baby pedal but it seems that I don’t get to hear one being used all that often. Ryan made great use of the pedal in distinguishing their own sound. What popped the most throughout their set for me was Ryan’s vocals, They were clean, crisp and sound great. Another huge factor in the success in their set was their timing, especially with the timing of the drums and guitars, there were a few key moments in their set where if they were off with their timing the song would have been lost. They joked around a little bit with the applause which they were getting saying. About halfway through their set they managed to get a few people off of their seats and they made note of that and joked around with the one table which was situated in front of the stage. The tempo throughout their set didn’t really change all that much which was great as it picked up a slower sounding night for me. One of my favourite songs which they played was “The Sublime”. This is one of the songs where they timing between each instrument was important especially between the drums and the guitars. My second favourite song which they played was “Esther” the drums sounded as if there was a little bit more muscle added to them especially nearing the ending of the song. Ryan still came out over top of the drums but was taken a little bit back compared to the other songs which were about to hear. At the end of their set they thanked everyone for sticking around until the very end of the night.
While My Dad Vs. Yours was setting up I noticed that they only had only one microphone set up on stage and it was set off to the very front of the stage. While the rest of the band was setting up their instruments The drummer started up the projector which was placed at the left side of the stage and shot the rolling movie of images to the white curtain which he put up behind him. To effectively show off the images the rest of the stage was pretty much in the dark. Throughout their set the images were really random and didn’t match to anything which was happening on stage. I was still surprised that their entire set was instrumental not one word was spoken the entire set except for thanking the audience for being there and to have a look at their merch table. During their sound check there was one song which had a really catchy guitar riff in it. This song happened to be the first song which they played. The song started off with a distorted high pitched noise, and a little slow getting into the main riff of the song. During the second song there was a women who was trying to guide Geoff in how to work his soundboard, which was quite comical because she was really just waving her hand in the air and pointing down to the ground. All Geoff had to do was tell the guitarists to turn their amp down a little bit and she was happy with that. The guys were playing songs from their newly released album Little Symphonies. Throughout their set I almost found myself wondering what their songs would sound like with vocals, but I really couldn’t figure out how you would be able to add vocals to their songs. They songs sound pretty good for the most part but I really wasn’t in the mood to listen to a forty minute constant jam set.
Shortwave finished off the night and hit the stage around twelve. A Few more people had filtered in during the break so they were not playing to an empty room. I first caught the sounds of Shortwave a couple of years ago when I reviewed their EP. I was looking forward in hearing what the new album brought for us. The guys have already have had a little commercial success with their new album called The Skyline Verses. Shortwave opened up their set with a song from their fist Ep called Sid. I was a little surprised that they didn’t just stick to play the songs off of their newer album. A couple of songs which were on their last EP did make it to the new album. The guys were well spread out across the stage and were left putting the keyboards off the side of the stage. I really liked the wide variety of guitar pedals which the guys brought up on stage. One of my favourite pedals and sounds which they used was the Cry Baby. I am always reading and hearing about the Cry Baby pedal but it seems that I don’t get to hear one being used all that often. Ryan made great use of the pedal in distinguishing their own sound. What popped the most throughout their set for me was Ryan’s vocals, They were clean, crisp and sound great. Another huge factor in the success in their set was their timing, especially with the timing of the drums and guitars, there were a few key moments in their set where if they were off with their timing the song would have been lost. They joked around a little bit with the applause which they were getting saying. About halfway through their set they managed to get a few people off of their seats and they made note of that and joked around with the one table which was situated in front of the stage. The tempo throughout their set didn’t really change all that much which was great as it picked up a slower sounding night for me. One of my favourite songs which they played was “The Sublime”. This is one of the songs where they timing between each instrument was important especially between the drums and the guitars. My second favourite song which they played was “Esther” the drums sounded as if there was a little bit more muscle added to them especially nearing the ending of the song. Ryan still came out over top of the drums but was taken a little bit back compared to the other songs which were about to hear. At the end of their set they thanked everyone for sticking around until the very end of the night.
James Young
My Dad Vs Yours
My Dad Vs Yours
