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Sloan, doggedly plugging away at the elusive American market.
The four guys in Sloan have always seemed like affable, well-adjusted fellows, which is a good thing, because if I were in that band, keeping my resentment at bay would probably be a full-time job. Canadian bands, even ones that share Sloan's affinity for 70s A.M. gold, are all the rage now, but in the mid-90s, when this Halifax, Nova Scotia quartet was trying to get their bright, hooky power-pop heard south of the border, post-Neil Young Canadian music in the U.S. had a name, and it was Alanis. Sloan had the misfortune to be an upbeat band that emerged right around the time grunge was insisting to everyone in earshot that rock and roll was a grim, serious business. But anybody who likes bright melodies, sing-songy choruses, and insistent power chords is a strong candidate for the Cult of Sloan.
Alas, the cult appears to be shrinking, and that is a pity. Ever the optimistic professionals, Sloan chose to see the Black Cat (13 months after their prior appearance there) as a third full rather than two-thirds empty Tuesday night, delivering a loose, fun 105-minute set that opened with a taste of Parallel Play, their week-old new album, but quickly returned to the catalog favorites that have earned them such a large devoted fan base.
Whatever the show may have lacked in precision — which wasn't much, actually; these guys are great players — it more than made up for in good fellowship. Skip, the band’s emcee and merch-table clerk, covered the brief breaks in the action where frontman/guitarist/drummer Chris Murphy traded places with drummer/frontman/guitarist Andrew Scott by performing a hilarious series of fake commercials (and a real one, for Meow Mix) as well as conveying audience requests, at least one of which — the jagged “Friendship” — seemed to jar the band into a state of heightened brio. “Good request!” Murphy declared as Scott pounded the song’s last bar into the Earth.
The proven two-fer of “Penpals” into “Money City Maniacs” closed the main set, preceding an almost entirely request-governed encore. “G turns to D” beat out “Deeper Than Beauty” for the crowd’s affections, sadly, and the caffeinated take of “The Good in Everyone” that closed the show demonstrated forcefully that while Sloan may have lost a few fans, they haven’t lost a step.
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