It is always  surprising to see a sold out show in Lethbridge on a Monday, but the Rural Alberta Advantage did just that, Nov. 1
 A nice post-Hallowe’en treat though, was seeing Winnipeg keyboard powered, female fronted indie pop band Imaginary Cities open the show.

It was a treat because guitarist/vocalist  Rusty Matyas also plays in the Weakerthans and the Waking Eyes.

 They played upbeat, indie pop music with some  charming, kind of jazzy, kind of Fleetwood Mac-like vocals from lead singer Marti Sarbit, who had the full house enraptured.

And just when you thought you had the bead on the band, Matyas punctuated  one of the songs with a  blast from his  trumpet. I wanted to hear a little more from the trumpet, but it was only featured on the one song.

 They joked about taking donations to afford a $250 admission fee for the West Edmonton Mall waterslide and were gone.
They made way for Toronto based trio Rural Albertan Advantage who unleashed some powerful drumming, a lot of keyboards and vocal melodies which had the audience crowded to the front of the stage and singing along with every word, but which had me thinking of Elliott Brood with keyboards.

The drumming was phenomenal, especially when keyboardist Amy Cole added her contribution to her own drums with drummer Paul Banwatt, while  vocalist/ guitarist Nils Edenloff kept the crowd singing along.

 They introduced a few new songs to the crowd,  who seemed to enjoy them, but the audience wanted to sing and dance and did so.