Night one of the ELEVATE Music Project showcases an impressive array of Vancouver bands
Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday. Sign up for our free newsletter.
It’s always hard to know what to expect when you enter a “battle of the bands” situation. So when I walked into the Biltmore Cabaret last Friday night, I did so with an open mind.
As one of the judges for the first night of the ELEVATE Music Project—which throws together 24 bands over six shows to crown one winner—I was hoping to get introduced to some up-and-coming Vancouver musicians that were exciting and ambitious and talented. And, mostly, I was really hoping that no one would outright suck.
Thankfully, no one did. All six bands on the night were impressive in their own right. The diverse, fun, and entertaining mix of musicians gave a busy Biltmore some memorable moments. And while I won’t explicitly give away how I scored the acts, here’s a breakdown of each artist, in order of appearance.
ELEVATE is an initiative created by Vancouver entertainment agency MRG Group to “help reignite Vancouver’s live music scene and support local emerging artists.” It was that last bit that Moira Chicilo knowingly poked fun at, acknowledging that she and her band were well past the age of most “emerging” artists.
But Chicilo and company (which included a man playing the double bass) brought a fun energy to the proceedings. Chicilo, who bears a passing resemblance to Susan Sarandon and has a fun, folksy vibe to her, knows how to work a crowd. The singalongs were easy and fun, and when she ended the performance with a song about her departed sister, the emotions ran high, too.
Mya Lowe has pipes. That much is for certain. And the band around her—which featured a keyboardist, a couple guitarists, and a drummer—can flat out play. “Hydra’s Revenge” and its “beast on all fours” lyrics was an absolute knockout of a number. Lowe is almost a throwback to another era of singer with a voice that hit all the ranges and a stage presence that feels old school and fun.
Rapper Snowchild Edge came out to the stage wearing a kilt (made by someone in the audience, rather awesomely) and a leather jacket. He was accompanied by an incredibly good electric guitar player, and the two of them proceeded to absolutely shred the stage. Snowchild’s crowd interactions were on point and his sound was smooth and on point. Was there a tad too much autotune for my personal taste? Sure. But if the question is, “Which artist commanded the biggest crowd on the dancefloor?” The answer was decisively Snowchild Edge.
Now, if the question is, “Which artist was abolutely stoked out of their minds to be there?” Then the answer is Summer’s Brother. Half of the psych-pop four-piece’s members were sporting looks from the ‘80s with long hair that reached far past their shoulders. The instrumental work was fantastic, and the band ripped through a few crowd-pleasing songs as the lead singer, who has apparently never found something on a stage that he couldn’t climb on, gave it absolutely everything he had. It’s a competition, after all, and these guys are inherently hard to root against.
Kitty & The Rooster are definitively a surf rock band. But that really doesn’t begin to describe the two-piece, which came out wearing cat and rooster masks. I’m really not sure how they saw or played drums and guitar wearing those masks, but they did that. When they took the masks off, the duo dove into some fun tracks in which they ran through cheeky and creative lyrics—on one song, they described themselves as a menagerie of things, including “the Black Keys, with better tits.”
An indie five-piece that clearly has some strong songwriting and expert musicianship behind it, especially when all the different parts come together. The harmonies here undeniably work. The lead singer can rip too when he lets it go. The nostalgic take on indie rock really worked for me. And yeah, I’m aware that’s likely because I’m a mid-30s white dude.
The ELEVATE Music Project continues with its second night on December 4. Tickets here.
Comments