Yukon Blonde and The Zolas warm up the Bronson Centre.

Winter seems to set in early this year but that didn’t stop people from heading to Ottawa’s Bronson Centre Saturday night to see Vancouver’s Yukon Blonde and The Zolas, who are currently on a co-headlining tour across Canada with a few select American dates. 

Coming in from the cold, it was nice and warm in the Bronson Centre as the venue was very crowded showing that these two bands had quite the following. The Zolas were first to hit the stage, but things unfortunately were not off to a great start sound wise, as bass player Dwight Abell’s volume was overbearing during the first few songs taking away from Zach Gray’s vocals and guitar, and Tom Dobrzanski’s keys. Luckily Cody Hiles’ impeccable drumming came through crystal clear, keeping the beat in check.

Even though for myself the sound wasn’t great at the beginning, it didn’t deter fans from singing and dancing along as the band started into the self-titled track off of their 2012 release Ancient Mars. Overall the band had a great energy on stage, Abell continually jumping around and running back and forth making his job look effortless. Gray’s guitar complements his singing all while he’s using his sampling pad to add in the effects mimicking the sounds of the albums.

The band played an hour long set including fourteen songs almost back to back with minimal stage banter in between, as Gray mentioned they would rather spend less time talking and more rocking out. The band’s fan base was definitely in attendance and overjoyed with the show. In the end I would almost say these guys could possibly be Canadas own indie synth pop version of the U.K’s Oasis, but I will leave that for you to decide. 

I will admit I was a little more interested in seeing Yukon Blonde than the latter. Having listened to their albums, and only seeing a video clip of stripped down version of the band playing Toronto Star Newsroom Session performing their radio hit Saturday Night, I wasn’t familiar with the band’s full ensemble. The drums, the keys/synth, an added percussionist and the uniqueness of bass player James Younger and guitar player Brandon Scott switching off the bass while Younger played the  keys, added to the front man Jeff Innes, made the performance intriguing.

Compared to listening the albums, the band has a lot more of defined hints of funk when performing live, specifically the tracks Emotional Blackmail and Cry, which also have a feel good summer vibes to them.  Yet the band busts into a track such as Brides, which is almost like straight out the Beach Boys era, or The Bluffs which could have been a disco hit on Saturday Night Fever, or This is Spain, which could be heard on any “easy listening” station across the country.

The band finished their set with the bluesy pop track I wanna be your Man off their 2015 album On Blonde.  Yukon Blonde are quite the diverse band of extremely talented musicians, but to truly appreciate how good they are, you will need to see the band live.

By Brian Vince.