01.23.2010 Julie Doiron

It kind of took me by surprise to see Julie onstage after they opened the curtain for the first band. Someone was telling me that she would be headlining this gig. On this tour she was actually the opener, but as I was told she's a bigger draw in Vancouver. Oh well, I thought to myself as she started into "Wrong Guy", at least I'll be able to leave early.

Last time I saw Julie, she played, backed by a full band. This time however, she was only backed by a drummer who I didn't recognize. Said drummer also played accompanying guitar for a couple songs as well, even though on most of the songs she was the only one playing guitar, she really rocked it out. Some songs sort of reminded me of the classic grunge style songs. Clean to mild distorted verses followed by heavily overdriven choruses. Midway through the set, Julie mentioned that they had been listening to Ladyhawk before doing a cover of "Teenage Love Song". I think the drummer forgot some of the words. Some would say they butchered it, Julie laughed it off, apologizing to Ladyhawk afterwards. I dunno if they were in attendance.

This show was actually an early show. Funny enough, there was another show afterwards, Attack in Black. This would probably mean Julie would do a couple of songs with them afterwards like I saw them do at Hillside. I guess to return the favour, the singer for Attack in Black, played drums for a couple of songs while the aforementioned drummer and Julie played guitars. It's actually quite amazing when you think about how different this set was in comparison to the set she did only 6 months ago. Normally, I don't expect too much for 90% of most bands opening sets. This particular set exceeded my expectation.

I left before the Bowerbirds. If I didn't have somewhere else to go I probably would have stayed.

$12/15