The Historic Lethbridge Festival got into the weirder and more pop side of the 1970s with “Can You Dig It” at the Lethbridge Public Library, Tuesday, May 6.
But first a good sized audience got a taste of some of the wild ’70s fashion complete with commentary.
So there was plenty of polyester, wide collars, big pants and crazy colours.
Models Bryanna Berghs, Natascha Hainsworth, Kate Miller, Carolyn Ruether, Andrew Andreachuk, Jeremy Mason, Keith Miller, Colin Dingwall and Meredith Pritchard mugged for the crowd and grinned, sporting an array of outfits.
The music of the night leaned heavily on the pop and experimental side of the ’70s.
Jackie French and pianist Michael Ayotte performed laid back versions of ABBA hits “Fernando” and “Mama Mia.” They also touched on the blues with Bonnie Raitt’s version of the John Prine song “Angel of Montgomery” as well as Randy Newman’s “Guilty.”
They examined the soft rock of the ’70s with a pair of Mid ’70s Fleetwood Mac songs — “ Songbird” and Say You Love Me.”
They ended their set by touching on disco with a nice version of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”
Jesse Plessis was up next to play the experimental and atonal Per Norgard’s classical piano piece “Turn” and turned two of Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon”tracks “The Great Gig In the Sky” and Eclipse” into instrumentals with the help of Bente Hansen, both sharing the same piano.
For something even more off the wall, Andrew Steward talked about ’70s recording techniques and experimentation and played an entire composition by recording his own hand claps on Steve Reich’s “ Clapping Music.”
Mwansa Mwansa and Bente Hansen, with the help of a couple of beautifully voiced backup singers, finished the evening with a few more mellow ’70 hits including a sweet version of Johnny Nash’s “ I Can See Clearly Now,” “ Seals and Crofts’ “Summer Breeze” and a laid back version of Elton John’s “ Your Song.”
She picked up the tempo a little to end the show with a solid version of Stevie Wonder’s “ I Wish.”