Hollerado and Jesse and the Dandelions entertained a strong crowd, June 20. Considering flood fears and Sled Island, which likely drew much of their audience, they had a good sized crowd though fewer than I expected as it was Hollerado who always bring in good crowds, being rising stars on the Canadian music scene.
An extended version of Jesse And the Dandelions including a new bassist as well as a keyboardist/ guitarist complementing frontman Jesse Northey’s earnest lyrics and ambient guitar, which, as per usual sounded like Vancouver area indie rock bands like Said The Whale. Hollerado were in high spirits.
Frontman Menno Versteeg smiled “We’ve never played an emergency warning before,” then lead the band into an exuberant set of upbeat rock and roll. They played plenty of catchy guitar and sang superb vocal harmonies.
They played several new songs off of their ‘White Paint” CD and old favourites like “Hey Philadelphia — Americanarama.”
A highlight was their “song about Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” called “Be Excellent to Each Other.”
There was a lot of jumping around on the stage. Together their music sounded like ”90s band the Gandharvas.
They also had liberal doses a of humour but got serious for a moment as they played “ So It Goes” about Versteeg’s grandfather’s experiences in the Second World War in a German POW camp and escaping execution for being part of the Dutch Resistance.
They asked if they could play a brand new song which they said they didn’t really know yet, but it ended up being on of the best of the show as it has some pretty sweet harmonized guitar licks. Some of the audience members knew it as they began singing along midway through it.
They noted they were going to be back in the fall, then welcomed mayor Rajko Dodic up on stage to play “Who Do you Love” to end their encore.
