Canadian alt-pop band, The Elwins, showed Guelph some love at the eBar on Tues. Dec. 1. From Keswick, Ont., the band has been spreading good vibes across Canada throughout November and December with their Tour For Keeps. The tour celebrates the release of their second full-length album, Play For Keeps.
HEYROCCO opened for The Elwins with a grunge look and sound. The band was pretty great—definitely a totally different sound from The Elwins, however, a cool sound nonetheless. From South Carolina, the band is comprised of members Nathan Merli (vocals, guitar), Tanner Cooper (drums), and Christopher Cool (bass). A daunting sound-check seemed to delay the show, and HEYROCCO clearly just wanted to play. “Let us play, let us play,” chanted Merli jokingly into the mic. More quarky comments were made throughout the night—the band’s leadsinger had a humble sense of humour, and although the show started off with most people sitting shyly at booths and tables, the three performers looked like they were genuinely having a good time. “If you guys wanna dance, that’s not hot lava,” Merli commented to the crowd with a grin, as he pointed to the dance floor.
HEYROCCO had a solid stage presence—their charisma was contagious. By their closing number, some of the audience had gravitated to the dance floor, with the help of The Elwins’ Feurd and Frankie. Some of the highlight tracks of their performance were “Santa Fe,” which demonstrated Merli’s very Conor Oberst-esque vocals, and “Happy,” with its brooding yet honest lyrics.
The Elwins took the stage next, playing a full set plus two encores, including a cover of Beyonce’s “Countdown.” Comprised of members Matthew Sweeney (vocals, guitar), Travis Stokl (drums), Feurd (keyboard, guitar), and Frankie Figliomeni (bass), the band aims to bring its fans straight-up feel-good music. In an interview that The Ontarion did with Sweeney, he emphasized this point when asked what the band wanted to communicate with their latest album, Play For Keeps.
“First of all, good vibes. That’s the top priority. We love making music and recording music and everything like that, and our goal is always to either get people groovin’ and feelin’ good in some way—you know, feelin’ like movin’ or smiling or something—that’s what we always want to do with our music. That’s the first thing we want to communicate.”
When asked about their new album and how it differs from their debut album, And I Thank You, Sweeney explained they incorporated a lot more pop into the mix.
“The biggest difference for me is the production of it. When we recorded And I Thank You, we were thinking like ‘Yo, let’s make a cool indie rock record’ we were vibin’ with the lo-fi recordings, and kind of vintage vibes and stuff, so we put our songs through that kind of a filter.”
“With the new record, the production is more clean, more pop. I feel like the songwriting is still pretty similar, and so the biggest difference is just the way that the songs are presented. We wanted to present the songs in a way that would showcase them in the most powerful and brightest light possible, and so we worked with a guy [producer] named Derek Hoffman and he helped us with that process. It was a lot of fun and we’re really happy with the way that it turned out.”
In terms of the album’s title, Play For Keeps, Sweeney explained that the band aims to let loose.
“[…] it goes along with the mentality that we have for the band, and in the way that we play for keeps, without any reservation we put it all out there on the line, and that’s kind of the way we like to operate. I don’t know if that’s something we necessarily want to communicate to our fans, but I think it’s a cool way to be.”
And let loose they did. The Elwins’ performance was totally fun, in every way. The crowd mimicked the band’s dancing, and bounced along to the groove of their music. Tracks like “Show Me How To Move” and “Bubble” forced everyone to their feet. The band also showed a lot of appreciation to their audience—Figliomeni, Feurd, and Sweeney often stepped off the stage to dance with their fans, immersing themselves into the crowd as far as their instruments would allow them. Sweeney often handed the mic off, especially to the two girls in the front, who were obviously die-hard fans. The two knew every lyric to every song, and their efforts didn’t go unmissed by the band.
After the show, Sweeney shared a few words with The Ontarion on his thoughts on the night.
“The crowd was so encouraging tonight—it was awesome to see. Guelph equals good vibes.”