Toronto based pop/ country duo Autumn Hill and Ottawa pop/ country singer Kira Is
abella know how to play to their audience of excitable young women who want to go out to party and showed it in spades at Average Joes, Nov. 4.
A good sized audience crowded in front of the stage to listen to and scream and sing along with Calgary born siren Tareya Green and Torontonian Mike Robins.
Green glittered and grinned in tight leather pants and a shining silver shirt as the audience screamed and Robins asked if everyone was having a good time, over and over again. She hit the crowd's resonant frequency as she told them she was originally from Calgary and happy to be back in Alberta.
In between shouts of “is everyone having a good time,” there was plenty of high energy, country tinged pop music and some pretty vocal melodies.
Mike Robins played some catchy guitar though was often drowned out by the other two guitarists on stage.
A new song, “Good Night For Doing Nothing” was a highlight. Most of their music was about having a good time and going out and sounded as much.
One of the guitarists played a six string banjo for a couple songs, though you couldn’t really hear it.
They shared the stage with Kira Isabella's backing band who provided the backdrop for a strong, exuberant and more than perky Up With People vibe.
I had the pleasure of having a coffee with Kira Isabella several years ago when she played her first gig at Lammles Western Wear in the Lethbridge Mall for a handful of people. She has come a long way since then.
Now she has her second hit album on her hands and her song “Quarterback” is charting well.
It was great to see the lilliputian Ottawaite with the huge voice backed by a band. They were tight providing the perfect, peppy, upbeat backdrop for her to strut around the stage, beaming and smiling like a young Shania Twain.
She showed off her beautiful, emotional, peppy voice throughout.
Most of her songs were of the having a good time, girl power variety from her new album, which most of the audience seemed to know word for word.
Near the end of the show, they turned down an electrified energetic set a notch as they went acoustic and wandered into the middle of the enthusiastic audience for a few tender moments and returned to the stage to turn things up again.
They wound down the set with “Quarterback” which showed how well Isabella can do more serious, weighty material.
