Elliott Brood Turn Their Backs On Alberta Again

All signs pointed to Blue Rodeo appearing as the secret guest performer in the 1 a.m. slot of this North By Northeast evening at Lee's — at least three of the band's members were in attendance and took part in Six Shooter Records’ Outlaws & Gunslingers showcase.

Those partaking of the NXNE Twitter wire knew differently. A tweet went out mid-afternoon announcing that Toronto's favourite death-country trio, Elliott Brood, would fill the slot.

At this juncture in the evolution of Elliott Brood's stage show, it's essentially pointless to try and compare them to their contemporaries or to try and rate their performances against those of other bands. These lads are now officially on their own level — one where mediocre outings have ceased to exist.

This just-for-fun appearance was a blessing for Mark Sasso, Casey Laforet and Stephen Pitkin, because it gave them a chance to haul out some tunes they haven’t played live in a while. Tin Type's "Only At Home" was a definite highlight and the crowd went nuts for Ambassador's "Wolfgang" and Mountain Meadows' "Miss You Now."

The only potential complaint about this performance — and it's the same one you'll hear from Elliott Brood's diehard supporters at nearly every one of their shows — is that they didn't haul out their fan-favourite, "Oh, Alberta," even in the face of an audience member yelling "Sasso! Oh Alberta! Let's do it, motherfucker!" Cheers to them for standing their ground.