Chersea and Royal Oak bring perky pop to Lethbridge

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 It was  a night full of pop music and flashing lights at the Slice, Wednesday, Aug 7.

Chersea singing with Royal Oak’s Austin Ledyard. Photo by Richard Amery
 I arrived in the middle of a keyboard driven set of perky pop music from Vancouver band Royal Oak, but couldn’t really see them as I was being blinded by flashing strobes, flashing everywhere except on the band members.


 They sounded great with catchy keyboard hooks and had a lot of energy as frontman  Austin Ledyard leaped all over the stage  from behind his keyboard while wielding his guitar.


 They also had outstanding multi-part vocal harmonies which shone through.


 They welcomed fellow Vancouverite Chersea on stage to sing an upbeat duet.
 A little later, she took the stage on her own, borrowing Royal Oak drummer /vocalist Myles Philpott.

I wasn’t expecting her to have a band as she is know for  creating her own personal symphonies through a whole lot of looping. But she added another keyboardist as well as a keyboardist /bassist to flush out her sound.


They played upbeat, catchy , keyboard powered pop music, but with darker undertones, as Chersea introduced one of her songs by saying it was about living with manic depression.

That was one of the songs she used her “Britney Spears mic” to loop a few extra layers of vocals and some irritating  vocoder effects, which were totally unnecessary as she easily sang at least three octaves on her own, hitting ear piercingly high notes with ease.


 She thanked the 20 or so people in the audience for coming out on a Wednesday night.

 Unfortunately I missed Tyler Vandendool and Toronto pop duo Goodnight, Sunrise who were on earlier ad Fawns, who closed the show.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 August 2019 10:08 )