People are starting to discover Whitehorse aka Luke Doucet and his wife Melissa McClelland, who played a sold out show at the Geomatic Attic, Jan 30.
I arrived midway through the show , which was opened by Daniel Romero.
They were playing Radiator Blues, one of the highlights of their CD “ The Fate of the World Depends on This Kiss.”
The song, which segued into blues classic “Who Do You Love,” epitomized what their show was like.
The duo scurried through a maze of cords, wires and effects units, singing a few melodies, looping them then playing a few riffs on a guitar, bass, keyboards and a turned the contents of a long forgotten kitchen cabinet (bread pans, pots, pans, drums and kitchen utensils,) into a veritable orchestra of sounds which they looped and sang over.
Doucet was playing most of the percussion, pounding on several different drums and the aforementioned bread pans, pots and pans in addition to playing twangy country / rockabilly styled riffs on his beloved white Gretsch Falcon , a Telecaster and several other guitars.
McClelland mostly played bass, but alternated between it and a couple guitars plus keyboards. She sang through a couple of telephone receivers to loop her lovely melodies.
Both of their voices perfectly complemented each other as they sang harmonies.
There were several highlights.
They revamped Doucet’s “You‘ve Got to Have a Heart to have a Broken One.”
And the songs “Devil’s Daughter” and “Amy-Lou” were highlights of the show.
Throughout they created vast soundscapes of sounds, loops and licks and embarked on psychedelic jams on them. They wound things down with another heavily looped number, called “Jane” which also had a very catchy countryish guitar hook.
After the jam on it, Doucet noted he brought the original to his friend Nick Kozub from Edmonton band Shout Out Out Out and discovered he inadvertently stole it from them, so they recorded the song together.
The sold out crowd gave them a standing ovation as they left the stage only to return for a beautiful version of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire.”
They had a big light show this time which was unnecessary and downright distracting at times. Just watching the duo create was entertaining in and of itself.