Calgary based indie rock/ folk quartet Locomotive Ghost made a long awaited return to Lethbridge to play the Owl Acoustic Lounge, April 21 with Victoria rock band Peach Pyramid and the first gig of Megan Brown’s new band Makiisma.
 While I Missed Peach Pyramid, I was pleasantly surprised by Megan Brown’s new  project Makiisma which included Dil Jopp on bass, drummer Keenan Pezderic and keyboardist JJ Waltho.

Instead of featuring Brown’s fiddle playing, which she is known for playing with numerous bands, this project focused on her original songs, guitar playing and pretty singing.
 They had  a keyboard driven, jazz tinged ’70s sound reminiscent of Steely Dan and  Supertramp , mixed with fingerpicking guitar and vocals which reminded me of Moose jaw songwriter Megan Nash.

 I couldn’t quite make out her stage patter due to the crowd’s chatter, but one of the songs was her submission to this years South Country Fair songwriting competition which made the finals.

It has been a few years since Locomotive Ghost coasted into town.

 They played a strong set of material, mostly from their brand new CD “Into the Glow which highlighted keyboardist Laura Schonenberg’s haunting vocals and frontman Mike Buckley’s guitar and voice.  Bassist Ben Nixon introduced the songs from the back of the stage and grooved, though, instead of the ukulele he often uses, he played an African Kalimba (African thumb piano) for a song.
James Bundy held down the rhythm.

 Nixon and Bundy left the stage to let Schoenberg and Buckley sing a duet together and rejoined them mid song.
They ended their show around midnight with the first single off the new record “Fool.”

—By Richard Amery, L.A Beat Editor