KD reviewed · 20 July 04
Good old Vue magazine in Edmonton reviewed Kris Demeanor’s live album (the one I recorded, mixed and mastered)! This is what they said about our handy work:
Kris Demeanor and His Crack Band, Party All Night (Best Before)
You don’t have to hammer listeners over the head with your politics. But if you’re squatting on the banks of the Bow River and you’re hungry, you do have to whack that goose pretty hard on the noggin if you wanna eat. In “Dinner Tonight,” Calgary’s Kris Demeanor spins a yarn about Willie and Dan, a couple of men of vision who ignore city animal-protection bylaws in their quest for food. It’s a lively story with a poppy chorus, punctuated by the courtroom admission “We were helplessly led by our guts!” It’s classic Demeanor: an up-tempo number that starts all light and airy but becomes heavier and more troubling as it progresses, culminating in the realization that all ain’t right here our own backyard but we can still have fun while taking a few pokes at the truth. Recorded over a pair of nights at Calgary’s Ironwood Stage and Grill last fall, this live album from one of Alberta’s top indie artists is a perfectly structured concert recording. Complete with horns and pedal steel – and let’s not forget Chantal Vitalis on electric guitar and backup vocals – Party All Night showcases Demeanor at his playful and pithy best. Whether he’s using a neighbour’s cross-alley “Shut the fuck up!” yell to launch into a working man’s ballad (“Real Jobs”) or trading creative loving insults with Vitalis (“You’re You”), Demeanor has the uncanny ability to infuse clever, tight studio tracks with new energy onstage. Spin this one the morning after a big night out.
4 Stars – Dan Rubinstein
This is what I said:
”...perfectly structured concert recording.” COOL!