The Rural Alberta Advantage is a group of emoting, rocking, and wholeheartedly genuine people that brought good tunes and good times to the Rock and Roll Hotel on Sunday night in DC. The Canadian influence is a very heavy one and many of their songs reference certain things about Canada. Niels Edenloff told a brief story about the song Frank AB which is about Frank Alberta a mining town where the Frank Slide happened. The Frank slide was a natural landslide that killed 70 people and is a significant moment for some Canadian historians. The lyrics of the song
“And the cold depths of the rocky clutch
Won't take away our love
.... save you from this life
and I'll hold ..... I'll hold on to your touch
'til there's nothing left of us
.... save you from this life
I'll hold ..... I'll hold on to your touch
'til they find the bones of us
.... save you from this life”
Is a chilling reminder of what happened in Frank. Edenloff loves Canada and it interweaves itself into the essence of the band. Amy Cole the amazing little sweetheart that jams away on keys, xylophone and occasionally banging on a kick drum that stands alone, mentioned how they started playing at open mic nights in Toronto that no one came to. Edenloff reminded us of this when he did a solo version of “Eye of the tiger” saying that this went all the back to the days of said open mic nights.
The three of them came across as some of the most authentically nice people you may ever meet and added a level of comfort to their show that I wasn’t expecting. The band is very percussive and songs such as “Drain the blood” highlights Paul Banwatts drumming ability on his tiny set. For the last song they walked right out into the crowd and Edenloff explained that this song never sounded right onstage, a slowed down tune bidding everyone good night called “The good night song”. This had the crowd completely quiet, a nice ending moment.
RAA - Frank AB
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