The Owl Acoustic Lounge featured a fun night of roots and folk with Vancouver based duo Chicken Like Birds and No Mothers, May 21.
While I missed No Mothers’ opening set, I arrived just in time for a fun and tight set of music from Chicken-Like Birds’ Jasmin Frederickson and Ari Lantela who traded lead vocals. Lantela’s smooth baritone sounded a little rough around the edges, but he made it work and it added a Tom Waits / Scott Cook style edge to the band’s quirky folk sound.
He added extra percussion but stomping a rhythm on a suitcase with a bass drum pedal and a quarter of a tambourine on his other foot.
Frederickson looked blessed out as she wound her slender frame around her bass and added harmonies when she wasn’t singing lead.
In addition to roots and country music, they also had a touch of acoustic jazz.
She looked and sounded a little like fellow B.C. based musician Miss Quincy.
They began their set with their single “Priorities” which was an immediate highlight as were “I Believe” and “Plain Old.”
Frederickson joked about being stuck behind a slow driver in the middle of nowhere on the Trans -Canada and sung “Wanna Go Faster” describing it as being about “the sloppy jalopy and the speed demon” about the experience.
It featured one of many effortless mid song time changes the duo incorporated into their music.
The duo’s interaction reminded me of Twilight Hotel.
They ended their first song by sharing their musical recipe for corn bread.
They returned for a second set with dual viola wielding duo No Mothers which added an extra layer of sound and extra harmonies plus spoons. It was a hot night of roots music which ended up sounding like Elliott Brood with violas.
