For something a lot more mellower than Helix on Friday but no less moving, I took in a great double bill with Jenny Allen and Leslie Alexander at the Slice, who played my radio show earlier that night.
 They had a pleasant Indigo Girls feel  with a  Shawn Colvin pop feel with pretty vocal harmonies plus a washboard solo and a kazoo solo. They played until midnight for a good sized and appreciative crowd.
 One of my favourites from my show and from the Slice show was a new song by Leslie Alexander called ’Supergirl.’

They play together really well with really sweet vocal harmonies and appealing guitar playing.

— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor

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I got a chance to check out a couple energetic Lethbridge bands I hadn’t seen before, April 7. Approximately 50 people were in the GCBC Lounge checking out local punk/ rock band Deathspot Radio to begin with. They were tight and put on a solid set of original music.
But Ottawa’s rockabilly/ garage rock band Gunsmoke were second with a lot of fleet fingered Gretsch picking and machine gun fast drumming which sounded like Duane Eddy meeting the Cramps in a dark alley.  The stand up bass player was totally digging in on his big white bass and the band played unbelievably tight. And before I knew it, their set was over.
The  crowd stayed on for Alley Cat Blues,  a local band who are neither a blues band nor have anything to do with alley cats. However they did prove themselves to be an adept garage/pop punk band with plenty of razor sharp power chords, some claw sharp guitar solos whoa whoa whoah shout along choruses and a dark sense of humour as they were singing about a variety of things like  the Grim Reaper, goalies and a  ghost at a party.
 Downstairs, Four of Winnipeg’s Magnificent 7s were hosting an open mic, but they played a couple sets of bluegrass and folk music including a great version of bluegrass standard ‘Rolling in My Sweet Baby’s Arms.”

The second half of  Canadian classic metal band Helix’s set at Average Joes, April 9 blew me away and took me back to my ’80s headbanging days of yore
Seeing all of the original members together again was an amazing experience as they sound great.

Singer Brian Vollmer still hits those high notes like nobody else and original guitarist Brent Doerner still has a knife edge sharp solos.
 I arrived in the middle of “Here Comes the Night,” one of Helix’s beloved lower tempo numbers. They played songs from throughout their career right from the early days right up to today and their latest CD, “Vagabond Bones”.

Vollmer  took a break while guitarist  Doerner took lead vocals and spoke about almost getting fired from playing the Alec Arms Hotel for not knowing any covers. He also spoke about releasing their first album independently in 1977, then sang their big hit from it ‘ Billy Oxygen.’

‘Heavy Metal Cowboys’ was another upbeat highlight as Vollmer donned a cowboy hat for it.
Throughout Doerner and new lead guitarist Kaleb Duck trades solos and played some wicked harmonies including quite a bit of Eddie Van Halen style fretboard tapping.
 But the hands down highlight was  when they played a harmonized version of the fanfare you usually at horse races,  as bassist Daryl Gray cried “Gentlemen start your engines.” 

The guitarists took centre stage and blew the headbanging crowd away who shouted along as they launched into their big hit ’Rock You.’
They were called back for an encore of ‘Monday Morning Meltdown’ from the new CD.

— By Richard Amery L.A. Beat Editor

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Small numbers didn’t deter  Victoria based roots quartet Fish& Bird, who played a short set at Henotic’s GCBC Lounge for about 10 people, April 12.
They showed just how many different sounds and styles you could make with a stand -up bass, a couple guitars, a banjo and a fiddle.
Thanks to the use of bows used not only on the bass  and fiddle, but banjo as well, the band had a ghostly aura and ethereal country vocals backed by haunting harmonies.
 They played some tracks from their latest CD ’Left Brain Blues’ from last year and also introduced the attentive audience to several new songs, ,one brand new  which they wrote in Nanton the night before and another really cool one which had inflections of jazz as well as a new “ghost song” which singer/banjo player and guitarist  Taylor Ashton said he’d always wanted to write because songs about ghosts are a common theme in folk music. He used a bow on his banjo to set a ghostly mood for the song.
 I was hoping they’d play longer, but they put on a fascinating show.