I cut the Windy City Opry short as I didn’t want to miss the long awaited return of Miss Quincy’s Jody Peck and Sarah Burton at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Wednesday, Aug. 14. But I caught them on a set break.
 While I was delighted to see and hear them  for the first time in at least five years,  I was disappointed  by the lack of number out to see these two supremely talented ladies.

They had about a dozen people, half of whom left during the set break.

 But they had a hard core table of fans there to see Sarah Burton, who has been living in Texas for a few years and was finally able to make it back to Canada.

 Burton only had a guitar instead of the keyboards she usually plays, but was able to translate “old Sarah Burton” request like “Make Your Bed” onto guitar for her delighted fans. She also played a couple of tracks from her most recent album “Give Me what I Want” including “Desert Sky,” which she said was what she says when people ask her why she moved to Texas. Burton still has a beautiful voice that is reminiscent of Sheryl Crow and Kathleen Edwards.

 Peck was happy to let Burton satisfy her fans, so happily picked out perfect vocal harmonies whole Burton played guitar.
 But Peck played  a couple of tracks from her soon to be released solo album including a  cool song called ‘Play” and another impassioned highlight about being broken hearted while living in the north.

I was looking forward to seeing Calgary’s  36? at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Saturday, Aug.10, but couldn’t stick around for them. Opening act  Laura Hickli and 36? apparently had trouble  crossing the border and were late arriving.

Classical guitarist/keyboardist Laura Hickli, keyboardist Kerry Hickli and drummer / keyboardist Taylor Cochrane took a lot of time to set up all their instruments.
 When they finally started, they laid down layers of laid back, super-mellow ambient sounds and sang some appealing three part harmonies.

 The drummer was simultaneously playing keyboards.
 But the overall effect was  stultifying.

 Dead Army rocked the Slice again, Saturday Aug. 10.
 But I arrived just in time to miss the Cayley, but be impressed by Vancouver power trio Officer Trip.
 They have been  following in the footsteps the ’70s rock revivalists like Monster Truck.

 So there were plenty of big riffs, grooves and blues flavoured solos like bands of the likes of Foghat, Mountain and Grand Funk Railroad made popular back in the day.

 There wasn’t as big a crowd as I expected, so the trio took the opportunity to try out a lot of new songs, which the audience seemed to enjoy.

In addition to big ’70s rock, they also showed more modern influences like the Foo Fighters on a couple of other songs.

Dead Army was next. Frontman Rob Morrison, who lost his voice for last week’s show and let new member Nick Bohle sing lead vocals,  was back on lead vocals for this show.

 As usual, they played their strong set of riff heavy ’90s inspired alternative rock along the lines of Our Lady Peace and I Mother Earth with a few ’80s style heavy metal riffs thrown in for good measure.

The Slice was packed  for a folk punk and pop night, Friday, Aug. 9.

 I arrived too late to catch Toronto pop duo Goodnight, Sunrise, but was surprised to see a crowd of local punks excited to see Montreal musician Mike Desj playing banjo, sitting in a rocking chair.

 He bellowed out roots punk music along the lines of Elliott Brood.

 He picked up the stand up bass to join Jesse Stewart, who was playing mandolin for his set.