This was the first of three nights of entertainment that I took in at this year Festival Of The Islands. I have seen Thornley and Rides Again before so I knew that I couldn’t miss this show for anything. I first showed up with my drinkin’ chair in hand which I knew that I probably wouldn’t sit down for very long which turned out to be true. About five minutes in to the Rides Again show I left to put the chair back into the trunk of my car. 

I was surprised at the crowd all night. I was surprised at all the older people who came out to the show. I didn’t expect to see to many people in that aspect, I don’t know how long most of them stayed but at the start of the show there was people about halfway to the back of the gates. At the front of the stage I easily got a spot two rows back from the front of the stage which I was very surprised at, usually if you get a standing spot five rows back after the music starts at a Thornley show you are doing good. 

I first saw Rides Again at the Joy Supper Club when they opened up for the Trews a few months back. There were a couple of songs that I was looking forward to hearing which were, Inside & Out and Wonder Why. Inside & Out was the song that I was looking forward to hearing the most, at the end of their show I asked them if that song was going to be on their new album but they were not sure if it was going to be or not yet. When I looked around most of the people at the front of the stage seemed to know most of Rides Again songs. When the guys started playing “Wonder Why” people already started to sing the lyrics to the song, and started to some more liveliness out of their bodies. To me the promoter did their homework in choosing one of the best choices for an opener for Thornley. The Guys did an excellent job in their performance and rocked the sh*t out of the stage. These guys are diffidently a band to check out if they are playing at a venue near you.

When Thornley came to the stage the crowd exploded. I was pumped right up to see Thornley now and he delivered a powerhouse of a performance. I will admit that there is only one song that I truly wanted to see and that was “That Song”. “That Song” is one of the few songs that I will never get bored with. I first thought when he played the song that it was toned down a little bit but I was wrong. They rocked the shit out of the song. One of the best parts about the song was when Travis was throwing out his picks during the song. Two of the guitar picks hit me directly but I was only able to get one of them, because the second they hit the ground they were pretty much lost. At the end of the show the guys taking down the stage threw out all of the picks that Thornley had left so I now have one of the Travis and one from Thornley. They also played a couple more Big Wreck songs which were “The Oaf”, “Look What I Found” and “Blown Wide Open”. One song that is defientely worth a mention is their Beach Boys cover song “Vagine”. With myself included I heard a few people say how well they came together on the vocals for the song. One cool thing about Thornley’s performances is the mass collection of guitars that him and Travis both have. There is close tie between the two on whose guitar I like the most but Thornley wins with his Metropoliten. This blue guitar is just simply put, Amazing looking. At the end of the show they came out to play “Come Again” as a bonus song for the crowd. After seeing this show I can’t wait to see these two amazing bands again when they come back near Kingston.

www.thornleyband.com
www.ridesagainmusic.com

Matt Hartwick