The Cellar, Vancouver, BC

Thursday, October 15, 2009

By Amanda Waschuk

Round one of The Peak Performance series proved this is going to be one tough competition. Vancouver bands and artists are competing against one another for a grand prize of $150,000 (second place receives $75,000 and third place wins $50,000).

Danny Echo kicked off the night to a ¾ full venue Thursday night at The Cellar. He rocked so hard that damage was literally retained. Danny dented his bassists guitar with his own, bumped his head on the roof speaker when he tried to get closer to the crowd, and fumbled his mic and stand onto the ground when trying to begin a song. This was all due to the small size of the stage but added to the show as their enthusiasm was contagious. There is definitely a classic rock influence to their sound and I would compare them to a bit heavier Sam Roberts. Super fun to watch, Danny Echo even brought his own props including confetti, a strobe light, and a fire extinguisher that blurred the stage at the end of “Better You Than Me”. Random fact: they all had red somehow incorporated into their shoes whether it was laces or an entirely red loafer (although I couldn’t see the drummer).

Describing their music as “sexy grunge”, The Painted Birds took the stage next. I can fully agree with this statement since they had some heavier tunes but also sang a few that lead singer Dominique Fricot claimed to be “love-making music”. An interesting challenge and great idea given to all the bands that are part of The Peak Performance Project is that they have to perform a song by a Canadian artist during their show. For the Painted Birds, Neil Young was the natural pick and they played a fantastic rendition of “Harvest Moon” that the crowd went absolutely wild for. The girlfriends then went wild when The Painted Birds dedicated a song to them on the basis that it was the first time all the band members had a girlfriend at the same time. And for some reason, feet seemed to be on my mind as I noticed guitarist/keyboardist Shawn Berke was wearing no shoes…

The final performers of the night were TV Heart Attack. This band was a little more mainstream pop than the others right down to the pretty boy bassist and black eyelined guitarist. They sang a great new single called “AO”, but when it was their turn to sing a Canadian cover, the band was greeted to loud boos when they claimed there is no Canadian rock, but ended up playing Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl”.

Good luck to all the performers, and those interested in checking out your local talent, The Peak Performance Project is still on every Thursday until November 12 so stay tuned.

Written by :

a.waschuk

 

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