Orleans was hopping last night with a sold-out show at the Shenkman Arts Centre, featuring inimitable Canadian icon Sass Jordan and opener Skye Wallace.
Toronto singer-songwriter Skye Wallace wasted no time in getting the crowd amped up, with a dynamic set featuring her fiery vocals and talented band. Her style and material reminded me a lot of some of my favourite female-fronted alt-rock acts of the late 90s and early 2000s, so she instantly had my attention. With more than 10 years and five albums under belt, Wallace had a lot of material to pull from. She noted that she’s been collaborating with acclaimed artist/producer Hawksley Workman on her most recent material, including the recent single “Tough Kid,” which sounded massive in Shenkman, as did some of the other tracks, such as “There Is A Wall” and the QOTSA-esque “Coal In Your Window.”
Sass Jordan hit the stage to applause from the capacity crowd, and from that moment on, she did not stop moving and smiling. With her unmistakable voice and seemingly endless catalog of instantly recognizable radio hits, Jordan’s ability to command a crowd with her spirit and joy for music has not diminished at all over the span of her multi-decade career.
Jordan’s set pulled songs from throughout her career, stopping occasionally to drop in an anecdote or two. She introduced “Going Back Again” as “a song I wrote about Montreal, but now it can be about Ottawa.” Other highlights of the night were “Who Do You Think You Are,” covers of Clapton’s “Let It Rain” and Johnny Winter’s “Still Alive and Well,” and classics like “You Don’t Have To Remind Me” and “Make You a Believer.” Aside from Jordan’s outstanding vocals, I also have to give credit to her absolutely stellar backing band. With a solid rhythm section and two capable guitarists, many of the songs featured extended jam sections, with both guitarists either playing harmonized lines together reminiscent of the Allman Brothers, or facing off trading insane guitar work back and forth, to the delight of the crowd. Truly the best backing band I have seen in a long time—hands down.
Jordan and the band returned to the stage for an encore of her 1988 single “So Hard” from her breakout album Tell Somebody. Still smiling ear to ear and with boundless energy, with each refrain of the line, “I try to tell you goodbye, but it’s so hard,” she waved goodbye to the crowd.
In the middle of the doldrums of Canadian winter, Jordan’s show was just the shot of positivity and fun that everyone needed to get us by until spring.
