The Beatle Invasion

My Best Concert Memory : Sloan with Rufus Wainwright (Vancouver 1998)

by gisrael on March 24th, 2008

Back in 1998 I was a teenager living in the suburbs of Vancouver. I was about to graduate from high school, was a relatively new driver, and was teaching myself to play guitar on my new Squier Stratocaster. I was already a big fan of The Beatles and by-and-large preferred Classic Rock over new stuff. There were some few newer bands that impressed me, and Sloan was one of them.

I went to a Sloan concert at the Croatian Cultural Centre in East Vancouver and was blown away. Sloan is four guys from Nova Scotia out to have a good time and make some great music while they’re at it. Through eight studio albums they have never released a cover song. All four members write and sing lead quite well (insert Ringo joke here).

Bassist Chris Murphy has an amazing stage presence and really got the crowd involved. I could tell that the band was having fun. They even switched up instruments randomly for a few songs. All four of them can play guitar, bass, drums and piano.

The opening act was not-quite-famous-yet Rufus Wainwright. Rufus had just put out his debut album and was about to get a lot of media coverage, but at this point I hadn’t heard of him. I was blown away by his hauntingly powerful voice and his flowing piano work. His sister Martha Wainwright, who also sang a couple songs, was much less impressive. All I remember of her performance is the loud screaching of fret noise on her acoustic guitar.

Ten years later, my first real rock concert still stands out. I’ve seen many great bands, I’ve seen The Tragically Hip, incredible jazz and blues performers, and various big-name Israeli bands. But I’d have to call that one night in 1998 my best concert memory.

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