The week got off to a rocking start country style as Vancouver based country rock singer Aaron Pritchett brought his Outlaws and Outsiders Tour to Average Joes, Monday,
Jan. 26.
I caught the last two songs of King and Cash, which featured Pritchett’s son Jordan who is also the former frontman of pop rockers Faber Drive.
They ended, quite fittingly with Johnny Cash’s “ Folsom Prison Blues, which Dan Arnold sang and Elvis “ the King” Presley’s hit “Jailhouse Rock,” sung by the younger Pritchett.
Aaron Pritchett’s hot and extremely tight band, guitarist John Sponarski, bassist Brad Ferguson, guitarist and lap steel guitarist Scott Smith and drummer Jayson Brinkworth, backed all three acts and almost stole the show from all of them as they effortlessly played all of the performers’ hits and future hits, adding a few bars of popular covers just for a little variety.
They ended the first set with a few bars of AC DC’s “ Back In Black, as Dan Arnold and Jordan Pritchett left the stage.
After a brief break, the band returned for Cory Marquardt’s set.
The up and coming North Bay based southern rock/ modern country singer played a solid set of testosterone powered modern country blending the sounds of modern country acts like Jason Aldean with southern rock influences along the lines of Molly Hatchet.
He began his set with a couple of originals to appear on a soon to be released album including “Twenty-One,” “I Need A Beer,” and “Nowhere With You,” then gave a nod to classic country by playing Merle Haggard’s hit “Mama Tried.”
He threw in a few modern rock covers and knocked off a hot cover of “Footloose,” slowed things down for a couple of songs, played his first single “ Smart Phone,” which had many of the pretty girls singing along right next to the front of the stage. He helped himself to a beer from a bucket proffered by one of the girls, fittingly during “ I Need A Beer.”
The band finished the set with a few bars of Guns’ n Roses’ “ Paradise City” with Marquardt making it his own, then left the stage leaving the band to finish up.
After another brief break, the band returned to a properly primed crowd and crashed into Aaron Pritchett's big hit “ Let’s Get Rowdy.” The crowd was already there as a beaming Aaron Pritchett took the stage, Corona in hand and blasted into a hit heavy set.
“Lucky For Me” was an early highlight which he followed with a Deric Ruttan cover.
His big summertime hit “Boat on the Water” was a crowd favourite which had most of the room singing along.
He slowed things down a little for “Somebody Must Have Done You Wrong.”
On “Hellbent For Buffalo,” he added Fort Macleod to one of the verses then sang a solid cover of the Band’s “The Weight,” which also had the crowd singing along.
He introduced a new song “Wake You With A Kiss,” by saying Lethbridge was the first to hear it live and dedicating it to anybody who missed him playing it live on Country 95 earlier in the afternoon.
It was back to his own hits after that as he played “New Frontier.” He wound down his set with an early hit “My Way” which he noted broke just about the time he was going to give up on the music business.
He officially ended the show with “Big Wheel,” which he described as “a song I originally hated.”
But they weren’t done yet.
The band came back for an encore of his best known hit, “Hold My beer” which he turned into a jam featuring all of the other performers on the bill including Jordan Pritchett singing Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer,“ Cory Marquardt singing “Summer of 69” and Dan Arnold singing Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Going to Take It” which ended with the two Pritchetts singing the chorus of “Hold my Beer” together and the whole room sang along.
— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
