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Concert Review: Sloan, November 29, The Concert Hall

Posted on
30 Nov 2024
by
Paul

On Friday night, Sloan played the first of a two night run of shows which saw the band revisiting their full-length debut Smeared, playing the 1992 album in its entirety alongside a selection of other early tracks and rarities from their back catalogue. 

Right before the band would take to the stage, the audience were treated to a montage of old home video footage of them at early shows alongside early media coverage from MuchMusic, CBC, CTV and others. It set the nostalgic mood perfectly for the show to come and offered up several humorous moments of news anchors explaining what this whole “grunge” thing was all about to mainstream audiences of the day as well as a great clip of former MuchMusic VJ Michael Williams telling a young Chris Murphy to clean a piece of gum off his face. 

Following that, the curtain rose and the band launched into “Underwhelmed,” their debut single and the lead track off of Smeared. While that song has still stayed in fairly regular rotation on Sloan setlists over the years, many of the other tracks from that album are ones that are much more rare to hear in concert, so it was a real treat as a longtime fan to hear tunes like “Raspberry,” “Two Seater” and “What’s There to Decide” in a live setting.

Another treat was the appearance of special guest Jennifer Pierce, formerly of the band Jale, who joined the band for vocals on “I Am the Cancer” and “Marcus Said.” She would also take the lead on a cover of Jale’s “Promise” during the band’s second set, another nostalgic nod to Sloan’s roots in the early ’90s Halifax scene. The band would pay further tribute to their 1990s East Coast peers later in the set by playing their covers of “Stove” and “Smother” by Eric’s Trip, two tunes that I never thought I’d ever hear Sloan play live.

The second half of the show was a surprisingly deep dig into the band’s early catalogue. Going in, I had expected the back end of the show to be more of a greatest hits set, but they stuck to the general era of Smeared, going back even further to play a few off the Peppermint EP (which Chris Murphy mentioned is now available on streaming services) and playing nothing later than “Coax Me” off of 1994’s Twice Removed. While this was a bit of a surprising move, I appreciated it as it gave the show more of an overall throwback vibe, turning the entire evening into a nice trip down memory lane.

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