Guelph musician’s send-off features Pulled From Panels and a room full of bunnies
The Washout played one last show in his hometown of Guelph before his trip out west to British Columbia. The Washout’s going away party was at Van Gogh’s on Friday, April 1, 2016, and happened to coincide with April Fool’s Day and Bunny Hop, which is one of Canada’s biggest pub crawls.
Pulled From Panels started their sound check with a slowed down chorus of “Seven Nation Army.” Pulled From Panels is a band from Leamington, ON, and features Holly G. singing and playing guitar, James Keller playing bass, and Ryan Chappell on the drums. They opened up the night with “Colt 45” by Afroman, and “Ridin’ Dirty” by Chamillionaire, but with their own geeky punk twist.
“Pretty cool to be back in Guelph. I’m an alumni from here,” said Holly.
The band then broke into a cover of KE$HA’s “Die Young.”
[pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]…songs about love, feeling like an outcast…[/pullquote]
Although the band kept good stage presence and tried to keep the audience entertained, the rhythm had drowned out a lot of the vocals and guitar, and the bunnies kept hopping. Pulled From Panels might want to consider changing their name to Elmer Fudd, because by 10:30 p.m. they had chased all of the bunnies away.
They went through a couple more covers with their own punky sound, including “Ignition” by R. Kelly, “Dark Horse” by Katy Perry, and “Blister in the Sun” by the Violent Femmes. Then Holly unveiled a song which she called KE$HA’s “Journey,” which was a mash-up of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” and KE$HA’s “Tik Tok.”
To finish their first set, Pulled From Panels played covers of songs by Ingrid Michaelson, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Elle King, Lady Gaga, and Miley Cyrus.
After a short break, Pulled From Panels came back and played a few songs off of their newest album VS., which was released March 25, 2016.
“Prepare for some songs about nerd shit!” said Holly.
After a few originals, they hammered through the Spiderman theme song, and then some more originals. The lyrics are all about their favourite comic book heroes and villains. They are songs about love, feeling like an outcast, and occasionally superhuman powers.
“This next one’s our newest song. It’s called Drowning in the Tide,” said Holly.
Pulled From Panels then finished their show with the theme song from Pokémon.
As Pulled From Panels gathered their gear from the stage The Washout poured into Van Gogh’s with armfuls of people he’d been chatting to in the street.
The Washout is a one man band from Guelph who sings and plays folk punk on his acoustic guitar. His first song of the night was an original titled “Drunk Mike,” which first appeared in a Guelph BMX independent film called FUCKALLHATERS Volume One.
The Washout played other raunchy punk originals such as “Out Of Place” and “Fucked Up and Free.”
The fans started hassling The Washout to play a cover of “Wonderwall” by Oasis, and after a while he finally let out, “No Wonderwall! No Wonderwall!”
Instead, The Washout played a cover of “Radio” by Rancid.
The small crowd began to get excited when they heard the Rancid cover, and The Washout began to dish out more rustic tunes like “Ramblin’ Hard” and “From What I Can Remember.”
“I’m going to play one last song. It’s called ‘Out On The Road, Back On The Bus.’ It’s about being out on the road and back on the bus. ‘Cause I’m going on the road to BC and I’ll be back on the bus,” said The Washout.
There was no closure with The Washout’s set. He packed up his belongings, finished his beer and handed a few pins out to some fans before hitting the open road. But just as he said, he’s going out on the road and back on the bus.
You’ll get your closure when The Washout returns.