Hedley with Faber Drive, Stereos and Fefe Dobson
EnCana Events Centre
March 26, 2010
Words & Photos By Mitch Guindon
Hello folks, this article marks my first time as a photographer and journalist for Northern Groove so go easy on me please, I am a drummer and mechanic after all! I'm sure some of you may have seen me out and about playing various venues around FSJ with the bands Anytown, The Suspicious, and Ryan Sebastiano and the Barracudas, or possibly I have fixed your Honda recently? In fact, as a result of making my living pulling wrenches, I was a little late getting on the road to the show and sadly missed the opening acts Faber Drive, Stereos and Fefe Dobson. Admittedly, it was Hedley I was out to see as two of the members of the band, drummer Chris Crippin and bass player Tommy MacDonald are people I knew from my days in Vancouver working at Ayotte Drums and playing with Nickelback and I was eager to see them at the top of their game!
The EnCana Events Centre in Dawson Creek was nearly at capacity on Friday night and headliners Hedley from Abbotsford, BC did not disappoint! Right from the start they hit the crowd with their debut single "Cha-Ching" from their new album "The Show Must Go" and proceeded to play a pretty broad selection of tunes from all three of their platinum selling albums. Singer Jacob Hoggard was an entertaining and energetic front man, doing spinning jumps and singing to the crowd perched atop various speaker stacks, even at one point going out into the crowd for a little help singing one of the band's many popular hits.
Mid-way through the show the band played an especially intimate acoustic set complete with trees and a campfire right in centre stage! All of the guys had their camp attire on and everyone sang and played acoustic guitars and drank beer. What's more Canadian than that I ask? Hedley is a band that is not afraid to poke fun at itself and their second set change was proof as they showed a faux newscast on the big screens where the band members were all in full cheesy newscaster get-ups complete with mustaches. At one point they spoofed a call-in part of the show where Jacob called in to complain that the crowd wasn't making enough noise ... Dawson Creek responded with a rousing cheer and the band exploded into the last set of hits including a soulful performance of "Sweater Song" with the crowd singing along. The pace of the show just kept picking up steam right to the end of the night with consistantly strong three-part harmonies and a rock solid rhythm section driving every song home. Guitarist Dave Rosin was right on point delivering tasty licks and killer riffs throughout the evening, seemingly without even breaking a sweat.
The very enthusiastic fans weren't about to let Hedley get away easy and called them back for an encore which had Jacob playing a grand piano at centre stage for a stunning performance of the hit song "For The Nights I Can't Remember." The band clearly enjoyed the great crowd and promised to come back to Dawson Creek in the future. Don't let the heavily tongue-in-cheek pop videos fool you, Hedley is a diverse and talented bunch of musicans and I have to tell you, Hedley rocked!
