Dinosaur Bones and Yukon Blonde at the Seahorse

Yukon Blonde. Photo supplied.

Small crowd doesn’t stop the bands from delivering top-notch performances

There aren’t too many fantastic venues left in the city, but the Seahorse always seems to deliver—especially when it comes to hard rocking CAN-CON groups.

Which is why British Columbia’s favourite old soul rockers Yukon Blonde came back to Halifax on Oct. 26 with support from Toronto’s Dinosaur Bones.

The show started relatively early with Dinosaur Bones taking the stage a little bit past 10:30 p.m. Although the band has played in the city a number of times, bassist Branko Sekic pointed out that this was one of their first shows in awhile that wasn’t in partnership with Halifax Pop Explosion. (Last year the guys opened for Sloan.)

The crowd was a lot smaller than last time they were in town (likely because of midterms and the fact it was hump day), but the band sounded better than ever as they blasted through a quick set of tracks off their recent album, My Divider. After months of touring, these guys are tight; if there was ever a band that looked set to take over the Constantines’ throne, this is the group.

After the band closed out their set with singles “N.Y.E” and “Royalty”, Yukon Blonde quickly took the stage to roaring applause. It seems like every time these guys return to town the shows are bigger and better than before, and this performance was no exception. The band kicked into high gear, shredding through songs off their 2010 self-titled album and a select number of tracks from their new Fire/Water E.P.

The band came on strong out the gate, but midway through the show started to lack a bit, possibly because the band was visibly drunk (they did multiple shots on stage). However, it added to the antics of the shaggy rockers’ performance, and not many fans noticed flubs in their songs (especially the small group of girls moshing at the front of the stage).

The band picked up their game near the end of the show, playing an immaculate cover of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and Yukon Blonde track “Wind Blows” before departing the stage with a reverb-soaked jam.

The club emptied out pretty quickly, but both bands stuck around afterwards to have drinks with fans and sign autographs on LPs and t-shirts.

Hold on to those autographs, kids, because if they continue to play as hard as they did on Oct. 26, those signatures will be worth something one day.