When Vancouver band Blackberry Wood comes to town, it’s like having the circus visit, except very few people come to see them. At least not as many as they deserve. They always have the worst luck in the world as they are usually playing dead weekday or competing against a bigger show.
This time their March 14 show at the Slice was competing with the Real McKenzies at Scores.
Blackberry Wood always have a different line up and a diff
erent theme whenever they play their rollicking set of punk tinged jazz and folk music. This time they had zoo milieu going on with frontman Kris Wood dressed a zebra, stand up bassist Shannon “Miss Eerie” Marie as sexy tiger, Jen Davidson as a blackbird, saxophonist Carlos Monzon dressed as a panda, banjo player Brendan Steele as a pig.
The banjo added a different old timey dimension to their sound and the more horns they have, the better they sound.
Frenetic frontman Kris Wood was his usual affable and energetic host, howling lyrics, cracking jokes and writhing around the stage while beaming a mile wide.
They played an array of music from mariachi influenced numbers, an old English folk song turned on it’s ear, to weird gypsy jazz music and a rollicking version of the Star Wars Cantina theme, which is always an audience favourite.
I’m sure they played their version of Tom Waits/ the Ramones “I Don’t Want to Grow Up,” but I couldn’t stay around for it as I wanted to catch the Real McKenzies.
Red Haven, featuring most of Blackberry Wood opened the set with more folky, but still jazz influenced music featuring Jen Charters Davidson playing sax and accordion, guitarist Brendan Steele and upright bassist Nathan Turner.
