LIVE REVIEW: Cuff The Duke & Hooded Fang

by Mark Gillis

Hooded Fang

It’s a rare occurrence that I go to a show anticipating the opening band more than the headliner, it’s usually the other way around for me. However, that’s exactly what I did this past Wednesday when I went to see Cuff The Duke at Starlight in Waterloo, Ontario; with Hooded Fang opening of course. Since I wasn’t really there to see Cuff The Duke I didn’t really have high expectations but I ended up pleasantly surprised by the end of the night.

I got to the show as soon as the doors opened and settled myself in. There weren’t very many people there at that time, which was basically the situation all night. So, I waited around for an hour or so until Hooded Fang came on and I was not disappointed at all by their set.

The Toronto band who released their second album Tosta Mista earlier this year were awesome despite the rather unenthusiastic people scattered around the small club. Most of their set consisted of songs from Tosta Mista along with a few older songs. It’s interesting how distinguishable their newer songs are from their older ones. The new ones have a very distinct surf-rock feel to them, which in my opinion makes Tosta Mista fun as hell to listen to and also really fun to see live. It’s kind of a shame that there weren’t more people (or at least more excited people) there watching because I thought they did an awesome job. I even decided to pick up the vinyl of Tosta Mista even though I already had the CD, it was a really pretty blue colour, I was defenseless.

After Hooded Fang’s set I waited around for Cuff The Duke to come on. There were a few more people that seemed to show up during this time but I’d still be surprised if the club was half full. Which again, I think is a shame but if people don’t want to go out and see shows then I guess that it’s their loss.

When Cuff The Duke came on they started with a few songs off their latest album Morning Comes. I felt the same way about the songs live as I did about the studio recorded versions of songs (I reviewed the album here). The songs in the first half of their set were alright but nothing really wowed me at any point. The songs definitely didn’t do much to excite a crowd that already didn’t seem that excited to begin with, aside from a few obnoxious drunk people near the front.

Toward the second half of their set I definitely feel like they got better though. The simple light sounding alt-country songs turned into a few fairly long-winded jam sessions that really drew me in. The highlight of the night for me was their last song. I’m not even sure which song it was because I’m not totally familiar with their discography but the song ended with that seemed like a ten minute jam that was really captivating.

All things considered I was definitely glad that I went. I’ve definitely kicked myself before for not going to shows that I had half an interest in so it’s nice to not have any regrets. Even though the crowd was sort and sparse and boring in general it was a better way to spend my Wednesday night then sitting at home listening to music on my headphones.

You can follow Mark Gillis on twitter @Mark__Gillis

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ALBUM REVIEW: Cuff The Duke - Morning Comes

by Mark Gillis

So here we go, I’m reviewing another country album. I can’t say I ever thought this day would come, but here we go.

Cuff The Duke are an alt-country band and ‘Morning Comes’ is their fifth studio album. So needless to say they’ve been mainstays in the Canadian music scene for almost ten years now. This album was actually my introduction to Cuff The Duke. I think that sometimes it can be good not to have opinions of an album get bogged down by the brilliance or ineptness of a bands previous work. They recently signed to Paper Bag Records (one of my favourite labels), which made me pay attention and finally check them out. What I found on Morning Comes was really a mixed bag of results.

I think I’d call most of the songs on this album “nice”, just for lack of me being able to come up with a better word. Like most alt-country, all the songs on here are quite catchy. Most these songs also have some pretty melodies and even more pretty vocal harmonies. The problem that I’m having with this album is that I have a lot of trouble saying anything more than “it’s nice”.

In the new Elliott BROOD album that I reviewed earlier this week, I said numerous times that I loved how they kept things interesting throughout the album. I rarely felt like ideas or rhythms were overstaying their welcome. To me, it made that album feel adventurous. The problem I have with ‘Morning Comes’ is that I rarely hear any of that adventure. Throughout the whole album I only feel like I’m hearing songs that are “safe”.

When I say that these songs are “safe”, to me it speaks a lot to the emotion that I feel is put into them (or the emotion that wasn’t put into them). Basically all of these tracks plod along in their standard song structure with some kind of solo near the end, then they just wrap up and move onto the next one. I guess I just feel like this lack of variety that is showcased from song to song makes it feel like the band is just going through the motions more than anything else. I know that all the songs sound somewhat different, but not different enough for me to really take anything away from every single song.

Even though I did feel like this album was mostly devoid of emotion there were a couple of tracks on here that I really liked a lot. The songs ‘So Many Times Before’ and ‘Brightest Part Of The Sun’ kind of took it down a notch when compared to the rest of the tracks on the album. To me the slower build of these tracks really allowed the emotion to stand out in them. Singer Wayne Petti just sounds so much more wounded on both of these tracks than any others. I wish I would of heard more of these two cuts through the entire album.

To sum things up, this is an alt-country album that isn’t really going to push any boundaries at all. It’s going to just be some pretty sounding music that feels (to me at least) like it’s made more for the sake of not scaring anyone away rather than doing something creative. So if you’re a fan of alt-country, I’d say this is at least worth checking out. You might like it even though I wasn’t that huge on it, but that’s just my personal opinion.

You can follow Mark Gillis on Twitter @Mark__Gillis

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