There's No Swindling At This Shoppe - Danny Sheppard Photography

There’s No Swindling At This Shoppe

Sep 17, 2013 by Danny in Concert

One Acre War

I’ve seen a lot of indie music shows in this old region they call Quinte. The interesting thing is that, although I’ve seen many of these bands many times over, there’s usually something that sets each show apart. Sometimes it’s a band I’ve never seen, sometimes a new band member, sometimes it’s just something about the performance that stands out. Or in the case of this show, all of the above.

First of all, when I go to a show at the Swindle Shoppe with bands in the lineup like Tiger Uppercut, The Beta 58’s, One Acre War and Black Stab Gospel, the last thing I expected to hear was acoustic indie folk. But I’m glad I did.

When I saw the name “Vivian” in the lineup for the show, I had no idea who it was and I guess, given the rest of the lineup, just assumed it was a punk band or the like. But was I ever wrong. When Vivian Forte grabbed her guitar and plugged it in, my automatic reaction was to put in my earplugs in anticipation of getting my ear drums smashed (as tends to happen at these shows). But I quickly realized, this was not ear drum smashing kinda stuff. It was your arm hairs standing on end, chills down the spine, hear the guy washing his hands in the bathroom over the music kinda folksy stuff. No earplugs necessary.

Don’t get me wrong, I love getting my ear drums smashed (as long as I have earplugs!) but I have quite a bit of Hayden, Sarah Harmer, Dan Mangan, Jason Collett, Jim Bryson, Josh Ritter and other not so punk rock music in my collection. So I really enjoyed this set. I think Vivian blew away everyone in the place with her voice. Amazing stuff. I just wish I had bought a CD!

Vivian Forte

So how do you follow up a nice quiet folk singer at The Swindle Shoppe? How about with some face splitting courtesy of Tiger Uppercut? When I heard Josh hit the first note on the bass it was pretty clear it was now time for those earplugs!

Maybe it’s because I play the drums, but for some reason I really love to watch a bass player really play the bass. I’ve played in lots of bands and it was always a struggle to find a good bass player. These guys have an awesome groove and they used it to tear us a new one. Follow that up with some good old fashioned no nonsense punk rock from The Beta 58’s and you really got yourself a concert of the musical variety. They had a new drummer, but lucky for him drums gotta be one of the easiest instruments to fake your way through a song on (trust me, I know!).

Tiger Uppercut

The Beta 58’s

After that onslaught, it was time for another quick set by Vivian while One Acre War loaded in. If you’ve ever seen One Acre War before (or some of the photos on this site), you’ll probably notice something odd going on here. Weeks ago, I was given the heads up that something new was in the works for the band and I was told that I had to be at the next show with my camera. Days before the show it was revealed that Stac was stepping out from behind the drums to focus on being the front man and Jesse was taking over behind the kit. I was promised that the result would be a performance not to be missed. They weren’t wrong.

After that, I had had enough carrying my camera bag around so I headed back to the car to drop off my bag so I could enjoy some Black Stab Gospel without a camera in hand for a change. Sorry guys, no photos from this show!

Do yourself a favour and go check out these bands. These guys work their asses off at every show to bring us some outstanding original music. And it’s not because they’re getting paid big money (or even small money in most cases!). Get out there to support local independent music and stop watching Miley Cyrus twerking videos :-).