Not since the cover of Doggy Style has the Capital Christmas Cover Show been rocked as hard.

December 17th 2009

Every year Fredericton’s Capital Complex holds the Christmas Cover Show to raise money for the food bank with a night of local talented musicians performing as tribute bands. This year the shoulder to shoulder crowd got treated to great performances of Sublime, Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters and the Presidents of the United States of America.

Rich Gloade Esq. and friends kicked the night off with a great sampling of Sublime jams from obscure to the sing along favourites that most people of our generation have sang a million times. Santeria had the whole house singing and dreaming of a summer camp party.

The Bruce Springsteen cover set was a guilty pleasure medley from Glory Days to Born in the USA everyone looked disappointed in them selves that they knew every word. The highlight of this performance was the amazing sax playing by Kelly Waterhouse the woman of 100 bands is a blast to watch and could not be more entertaining. Bruce Springsteen seems to be left out of the CD collections of most people under 30 but Zach Atkinson and crew may have informed those why they call Bruce the Boss.

The Foo Fighters set started off with great ferociousness. One of the best features of the Capital Cover Show is the non-hits that are played. The cover of “Low” was one of the my favourites but never a single and probably never covered by any band doing Foo Fighters songs, great song choice and the Foo’s were rocked rightly.

Until this years show I would say the best cover show performances were All of Green's Performance of Snoop Dogg and Chillin Rooms performance of Cake. This year The Presidents of the United States of America featuring Andrew Butler, Feelsgoods’ Paul McAllister, Mumbles and Chris Craig set the bar higher. A band that has been forgotten over the last decade was the favourite it seemed. As the foursome ripped through most of the first Presidents album the audience knew every song and sang along. McAllister’s lead vocals energy and unfiltered excitement pulled the audience in; it is refreshing to see a vocalist who is having more fun then anyone else in the room. The set ended with the hit Lump followed by a surprise performance of Rappers Delight that turned into an epic jam that you had to be there to see Craig, Butler and Mumbles proved it near impossible for those three to be onstage and not blast out a seem-less jam session.

It would be hard to ignore the support given to the Fredericton food bank and I would like to give a big Feels Good thanks to all the folks at the Capital Complex, Forward Music, the musicians that played and the crowd that came out in full force to support one of Fredericton’s best events.

The challenge has now been set someone out there has to out do this performance by the Presidents cover band.

Peace
Everett