Winnipeg blues/ rock trio the Perpetrators are always a pleasure to see and rock out to. They did exactly as expected, Saturday, Nov. 2 at the Slice for a good sized crowd.
The trio, featuring frontman/ lead guitarist Jason Nowicki, bassist Johnny Scoles and special guest Grant Stovel on drums, played an array of songs from throughout the Perpetrators’ career, and added some excellent songs from their brand new CD “Stick ’Em Up.”
While a lot
of Perpetrators songs sound familiar, they fit as comfortably like an old slipper. For example, the new country tinged song “Sweetgrass” sounds a lot like “Josco,” a song from a few years ago that the Perpetrators wrote in honour of Johnny Scoles, who owns their regular Winnipeg haunt the Times Changed.
So throughout there was plenty of gutsy, rough, raw and rock and roll edged guitar that would make Hound Dog Taylor smile down from Heaven, Nowicki is a perfect frontman, Stovel grinned like a madman, pounding on the skins and Scoles was lost in his groove.
They had a lot of people dancing in front of the stage and in some cases, “singing along.”
“10,000 Miles” was a highlight of the first set, which concentrated on older material.
Some of the newer songs were highlights like “Tired of Trying to Keep My Cool.”
They ended the first of three sets with my all time favourite Perpetrators’ songs “Six Pack.”
I only caught a couple songs from their second set, which included “Bad Man,” from the new CD and the slower “ Stay Strong.”
The third set was off the hook, as they played a variety of more upbeat blues including “Crack Whore Blues.”
Nowicki wound things down by dedicating crowd favourite “Malt Liquor” to the band’s original bassist Ryan Menard.
They ended the night around 2 a.m. with another crowd favourite “Smokes N’ Chicken.” from the new CD.
