Wide Mouth Mason finally made their return to Kingston thanks to K-Rock and Stages Nightclub on Tuesday night. It has been almost two years since Wide Mouth Mason has played in Kingston, the closest they have came was when they played the Festival Of The Islands in Gan. K-Rock’s Extreme Band Slam winners Pelt opened up the show and Wide Mouth Mason’s touring partner Public opened up the show also. 

Pelt opened up the show for Wide Mouth Mason. To me they proved why they deserved to win K-Rock’s Band Slam. When Pelt first took the stage and opened up with the song Bank Robbery my eyes including the all the other guys eyes in the audience were transfixed on the sultry Genene’s moves on stage, whenever and wherever she moved across the stage all eyes where on her. I also found that Genene’s fits in perfect for the style of music that Pelt plays but mostly it was her moves. The Cuz the only guy in the band (lucky guy) was showing off his new Gibson guitar that was courtesy of K-Rock and Center Stage Music. For the people who don’t know who the members of Pelt are, there is Moira on the Keyboards, Laura on drums, Denise on bass guitar, The Cuz on lead guitar and Genene on lead vocals. Their set was about half an hour long and started right at 10. Unfortunately for Pelt people are use to the bars starting the bands later and later so the entire crowd that appeared wasn’t at Stages yet. Pelt played all of the songs off of their debut EP album called Vacancy. 5 Finger Touch was my favourite song that Pelt performed. I also found that the Moira’s keyboard skills stood out in many of Pelt’s songs. I find that the keyboard if often lightly heard in the background but with Pelt the keyboard is a major part in what creates their original sound. A few of the other songs that Pelt played in their set were Miss Kitty, Papa Jacks Dance Bone, and Tide Me Over. With the taste that they gave Kingston in their performance they created a great send off for themselves as they head up to Toronto for the Canadian Music Week. 

When Public came up onto the stage second not a lot of people really knew who they were. There were no advertisements anywhere to announce that they would be playing or the name of the band. Only true Wide Mouth Mason fans knew who Public were and that they were touring with Wide Mouth Mason on this leg of their tour. I never listened to any of Public’s music before but I have to say they were pretty good on stage. Their song set list consisted of 11 songs and they opened up the night with an Intro and followed that song up with Walk Away. It wasn’t until after the second song which was Any Other Way that Public announced who the band was. Public is a five piece band that comes from Toronto and St.Catherines. What I noticed from their on stage performance was the band knew all of their music very well and their music ability was very tight. When I was taking pictures of Public my eyes were drawn into the amount of pedals that the band had onstage, I can not remember when I have seen so many pedals for one band. Get Back, Traffic and Now And Again were the third, fourth and fifth songs that Public played. When I was talking to the band and the end of their set they mentioned that Kingston was one of the better audience replies they have received. Now touring with Wide Mouth Mason Public should be able to get the push and the exposure that in my eyes and ears they deserve after putting on a good show especially when a lot of people didn’t know who they were when they got on stage. 

When Wide Mouth Mason came onto the stage the crowd was pumped up after listening to Pelt and Public. This was one concert that I looked for to going to. I especially lucked out earlier in the day when I was outside fixing up the car and G from K-Rock Announced that he had a couple of tickets to give away. Luckily I was able to get through on the phone lines and he gave me a pair of tickets, but the only kicker was I had only about 30 minutes to get there. I was able to throw on a few pieces of duct tape to keep my license plate from falling off. The best part about getting free tickets is that now I can spend that money on beer. Wide Mouth Mason played all of the songs that have made them the success that they are. When WWM were playing their songs they did what not a lot of bands tend to do, they added in guitar solos and jams into the songs. The jams didn’t really disappoint me as Shaun is a great guitarist but I went to see and hear the original versions of their songs. Companion (Lay Me Down) was the song that I looked forward to hearing the most. There was a long lead up into the song before they played it. Change was another song that I wanted to hear, the part that makes Change on of my favourite is when Shaun digs deep and bellows out his high pitch scream. WWM played a song from every album that they have put out including Rained Out Parade. Now what many people don’t know is that Shaun has put out a solo acoustic album that covers WWM songs. I knew that he wouldn’t of been able to play any of the songs from that album because of the bar setting but I think it might of went over well with the audience. As always WWM didn’t disappoint the audience at all with their live upbeat sound and their onstage performance. I brought along a couple of their album in hoping that I would be able to get them signed. I lucked out with Shaun because I caught him before he was about to head onto the stage. When I was talking to WWM and the end of their show the thing that impressed me the most about them was the fact that took the time to sign their autographs and to take pictures with the fans. It was also the way they thanked everybody for their support of the band and for coming out to see the show. For me doing what they did is a major aspect in what makes a band. 

www.widemouthmason.com
www.myspace.com/widemouthmason
www.myspace.com/peltband

Matt Hartwick
m.hartwick@partyinkingston.com