I Mother Earth kicks off tour with high energy performance

TicketMOMster review: I Mother Earth @ The Burt

I haven’t been to The Burt since my Father suddenly passed away two and a half weeks ago. We saw a lot of shows there together. We’d usually sit in the first balcony but later in his life, his knees got so bad he couldn’t climb the stairs, so I’d buy us seats on the floor.

I have a lot of memories there with him and shouldn’t have gone to this show early because it gave me time to think about those memories. He probably wouldn’t have come to this show with me, but it was sad to think we’ll never sit there together again.

I heard about The Standstills, but I’d never seen them play live. By the time they started their set, I was pretty depressed.

The band took the stage to some sort of Hi-Ho Silver music and if you thought this band was country, you’d be sadly mistaken. They played straight ahead hard rock, just the two of them; Jonny Fox on guitar and vocals, and Renee Couture on drums and percussion.

Renee was a bit of a beast behind the kit, which was effective for this type of heavy Metallica-ish (Girl God Damn) music.

I thought Jonny had an interesting voice. Not interesting as in unique, but interesting as in I wouldn’t have paired it with really heavy songs. It wasn’t bad, it was just different. He could certainly hold a note as evidenced by Shotgun, which actually started with a brief cover of Stone Temple Pilots’ Vaseline.

I enjoyed their set. If I was in the mood for hard rock and they were in town, I might see them again.

I was still sad when The Standstills left the stage, but kind of excited to see I Mother Earth’s singer, Edwin. During his Crash Karma days he helped create one of my most favourite memories with my Daughter.

I was lucky enough to be invited to Crash Karma’s sound check at The Oak (now Nashville’s) back in 2013. I brought my then two year old Daughter and she had a ball running around the bar, charming the staff.

During the sound check, Edwin and the band played Alive. I remember scooping my tiny Daughter up in my arms and slow dancing with her on the empty dance floor. My movements were exaggerated so she wouldn’t get bored and she rested in my arms and let me dance her around the floor. It was such a special moment between the two of us. Of course she doesn’t remember that moment, but I’ll always remember.

Tribal music introduced I Mother Earth’s “20th Anniversary of Scenery & Fish Tour” and by the time they started the song Like A Girl, I had forgotten about being sad. Edwin looked and sounded great.

One More Astronaut had Edwin and guitarist Jag Tanna jumping around the stage like 18 year olds.

Another Sunday had the crowd singing and the beginning of Used To Be Alright was…weird. At one point it sounded like old fashioned piano playing piped in over the sound of the band. I don’t know what that was about, but I’m guessing it was technical difficulties. After that, the song was excellent. I particularly enjoyed keyboardist, Jesse Karwat’s dancing and percussion playing. And his hair was pretty damn cool too. LOVED IT.

Jag had a delightful guitar solo during Shortcut To Moncton. It was very atmospheric, there was nothing screechy or fast, just really melodic and dreamy. Beautiful.

The one thing this band understands is how to enhance a song with percussion. The percussion in Pisser was excellent as well as Earth, Sky & Co. Jag had another great solo during the latter tune as well.

Scenery & Fish was an incredible album. However, I really connected with their first release, Dig. I played that CD to death and even bought copies for all my friends. I liked the energy and rawness of it. Scenery & Fish felt a bit more pop-ish and polished to me. So I was thrilled when the band came out for the encore and launched into Levitate. My God, the energy in that theatre was fantastic. Not Quite Sonic and Rain Will Fall were two huge bonuses for me. The inclusion of the Dig tunes were like icing on an already delectable cake.

One last thing, I realize this was the first show of this leg of the tour, but I’m hoping the lighting improves for the rest of the tour. Sometimes the band sang and played in the dark and that kind of sucked. Maybe someone was having an off day or “beginning of the tour jitters”.

If you were lucky enough to witness the energy on that stage tonight, you’d never believe 20 years had passed. The band were definitely in tour shape. I highly recommend this show, especially if you’re a fan.

Good night.

P.S. I’m still not sad and I’m certainly not tired. Can we do that again? Like right now?

TicketMOMster is a Rock and Jazz-loving Mom; single-handedly keeping Ticketmaster alive in Winnipeg. Follow her musical journey here: www.facebook.com/TicketMOMsters