I caught one of two sold out shows at the Geomatic Attic with Royal Wood and White Rock, B.C duo Fionn, Tuesday, May 22 they had a great week with the two sold out shows and a close to sold out MonkeyJunk show.
I was impressed by twin sisters Alanna and Brianne Finn-Morris aka Fionn who harmonized like they shared a brain and a set of vocal chords. They sounded like twin Jane Siberries with a touch of the Indigo Girls, singing a variety of original femme positive folk/pop music including “Tell me I’m Pretty,” and “Magazine Face” though I was disappointed not to hear their catchy new earworm of a single “Skeletons.”
Mandolin wielding Alanna sang lead for the first half of the set as her guitar picking sister sang effortless harmonies. I enjoyed their song “Sad Boys, and especially enjoyed listening to Brianne taking over on lead vocals as they explored their Irish roots and Celtic musical background on “Pagan March” and giggled as she sang about her first love “Robert.”
Royal Wood has had an interesting couple years of upheaval since he last played here, at the Southminster United Church with the Good Lovelies in 2014— his father died of Alzheimer’s and he met and married his wife. So he had a lot of life experiences to draw from. He joked he wasn’t used to singing happy songs, but played a couple of new ones anyway.
He started out slowly, solo on the piano before being joined by two back up singers, a drummer and a bassist who alternated between upright bass and electric bass. He reminded me of a young Julian Lennon, especially on piano.
he asked the audience to applaud for “those talented kids” Fionn before getting started on “ I’m Going to be Your Lover.”
He played a new song he wrote while recording his new CD “Ever After the Farewell” about being single, noting “I wrote it right before meeting my wife.” He introduced his talented backup singers, who added a l touch of gospel and soul as he switched to a 12 string guitar for a song.
Then it was time for the crowd to sing the “Hey Hey hey Forever and ever” chorus of one of his more popular songs “Hey Hey hey, Forever and Ever.”
The affable Royal Wood, laughed and joked and tried to play matchmaker for his single bassist Steve Sirai.
After that he dug deep for a song he wrote in 2001.
He ended an enjoyable set with “ Not Giving Up,” on piano and was, of course called back for an encore, which he played solo.
He called back his band for a peppy cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “ Dancing in the Dark.”
