Royal Canoe at Velvet Lounge

Merrijoy May 15, 2012 DC Live, events, News No Comments

Last Thursday night, we caught a rather nice lineup of bands at the Velvet Lounge on U Street. Filling the bill were local bands, Western Affairs and The Sea Life, and our latest Featured Artist, Canadian band, Royal Canoe.

Here at Pick-Up, we love working with local bands and so Western Affairs and most recently, The Sea Life have been on our radar but having Royal Canoe on the bill was what I was very pumped for. Having listened to their EP Extended Play a whole lot while having them featured on our site, the complexity of sounds that they had going for them was one to be pretty excited to see live. And they delivered! The six-piece band from Winnipeg, Manitoba played a short but killer set of tracks from their latest EP and their upcoming full-length record. With six guys and crazy sounds, loads of gear to fill the stage at Velvet Lounge were bound to follow. It’s incredibly impressive that the amount of keyboards, guitars, drums, and vocal harmonies can make such cohesive sounds for songs. It was a treat to hear Bathtubs, the second track off of their EP, which ended with lead-vocalist Matt Peters singing into another mic to get that vocal-distortion effect. And this would continue throughout their set with the different switch-ups of instrumentation. These guys have a really great thing going for them and seeing their impressive live set makes one pumped to hear their full-length record. I know I’m already excited to see them come back into town.

I won’t forget about our local bands either. Western Affairs opened up the night by showing the crowd that they were worthy of winning the Next Big Thing tour. Western Affairs are still a young band that are making their way onto local DC stages, showcasing their experimental dream-pop with tracks like Control and 1999. They’re currently working on their first EP. The Sea Life closed the show, opening their set with their summery track Sleep, which we just most recently posted a Blue Light Session for. It was a delight to hear the five of them play their EP tracks live. We’re excited to see these two bands grow as they continue to play for crowds in the DMV.

Check out our photos from the show down below.