Show Overview: The Grass' Last Stand @ The Seahorse w/ Raccoon Bandit & Gigas

Friday, April 1 at 9:00pm
The Seahorse Tavern

5+ years, 4 full-length albums, a myriad of musical members, a plethora of musical stylings...and it all comes down to this - The Grass' last stand.


The Grass -  http://radio3.cbc.ca#/bands/The-Grass
Raccoon Bandit  - http://www.myspace.com/racoonbandit
Gigas - http://www.facebook.com/pages/GIGAS/113790968642443




One man dance/weirdo band Gigas played a short opening set. Programmed drum loops layered with with droning synths and heavily effected vocals seemed to hit the spot for the crowd, who clapped and cheer for an encore, resulting in an awkward tear down/look at the sound guy/set up/tear back down. Last time we saw Gigas they had double the members, so I'm not sure if that was a one off or if this was, but the sound was still full and a nice warm up for the growing crowd.











Raccoon Bandit of Charlottetown, PEI, were in Halifax to release their new CD, Into the hills. With electric and sometimes acoustic guitars, drums, bass, electric piano, and multiple vocalists, the band had a pretty full sound. Their music was very straight forward and firmly routed in indie/country styles, but they happily avoided a lot of cliché sounding songs and delivery a rich tapestry of sound. Their songs were well composed but I got the sense from the audience involvement level that they were more a band to listen to on CD in a quiet wooden home on a slightly chilly day – it's a vibe that a lot of coastal Canadian bands seem to present. None the less the band was tight and enthusiastic, so I recommend checking out the new album if you're into that style of music.















The Grass were a Halifax staple for many years; evolving out of the ashes of freak out band Money, the Grass took on a more mainstream, early rock and roll sound, drawing inspiration from bands like the Beatles, Neil Young, the Yardbirds, and MC5 (of whom they would later perform a tribute set). They were famous for wild, over the top sets mixing their original songs with covers by the Rolling Stones or the Beatles and more. In particular they were showed no shame in their generous guitar antics.








At their final show there was no moment of disappoint. Ridiculous guitar solos flew off the stage at every opportunity, all backed by a constant hour long stream of insane drumming – even after the rest of the band left the stage and the house lights were long since up, the drum solos just kept coming and may just have gone on all night long if the bar hadn't closed. Their set spanning a good chunk of their career, but it was impossible to pack all into one set. Even though there were hours of songs to pack in, the band was more than willing to indulge in plenty of on stage jam sessions, trading solos and climaxing in a collage of their most popular covers.














Though their move to Ontario probably wanned their popularity in Halifax over the last few years, there was plenty of home town love at the Seahorse. Fortunately for us, the final show listing from the band promises that the band will be “reborn under a new (old?) moniker!” - anyone's guess as to what that could be. I have my fingers crossed but no doubt whatever it turns out to be will be a spectacle to look forward to in the hopefully near future.

Watch the ENTIRE SET in 3 fantastic parts, below!

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See all the photos from this show HERE.

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