The Geomatic Attic wound down their set by bringing back The Great Lake Swimmers to the Southminster United Church for a stultifyingly beautiful set of laid back, mellow indie folk which enraptured a good sized crowd, Monday, Nov. 7.
I arrived for the end of Megan Bonn
ell’s set of earnest , pleasantly strummed folk music. She would join the trimmed down Great Lake Swimmers trio (frontman Tony Dekker on vocals and guitars, Erik Arnesen on banjo and guitars and Bret Higgins playing upright bass, mandolin and keyboards) later in the set.
The trio melded well together as expected for a band who have been playing together since 2002 and six albums plus the new EP.
They began a relaxing set of nature inspired roots music by concentrating on new music from their “ Swimming Away” EP and last full length CD “ Forest of Arms,” before addressing the enraptured crowd by saying they would be playing requests posted on their Facebook Page.
“But we won’t be playing any Skynyrd like they requested in Nelson last night,” Dekker chuckled.
“I hope you got enough sad and sadder songs,” Dekker later grinned, in between singing in his sweet, plaintive tenor voice.
They set a haunting, yet relaxing mood from the start with Bret Higgins making spooky sounds by bowing his upright bass, then putting the bow away to lay down a groove.
“ Don’t Leave Me Hanging” was an immediate highlight from the “ Forest of Arms” CD.
Higgins picked up the pace a little bit by exchanging his upright bass for keyboards for a couple of songs and traded that for a banjo. “Last Chance Burger was a crowd favourite.
After playing a few of the Facebook requests, Higgins switched to mandolin as the trio invited Megan Bonnell on stage to sing a couple songs with them.
