Patrick Watson w/Rural Alberta Advantage,
Yukon Blonde, Dance Movie
Saturday, October 21, 7pm
Forum MPC, 2901 Windsor Street
$40 adv/$50 doors
After releasing music as a band for close to 15 years, Patrick Watson is finally coming to Halifax. "I can't believe we haven't played Halifax yet, this is ridiculous. I can't believe it's finally happening," says Watson.
When it comes to Saturday's setlist, Watson plans to be more conscious of the fact it's the band's first time playing in the city, meaning there should be a healthy dose of older songs. And while it's under one individual's name, it's a full-band experience that's even more vibrant live than on record.
"It's a pretty rare quality in terms of musicianship of a band, it's pretty solid. It's not as dark as the records, the show," he says. "It's a lot more fun and kind of crazy. I would say we're a much better live band than we are a record band."
Personally, Watson has already been busy exploring Canada, recently returned from a leg of the Canada C3 journey. The project, part of Canada 150, is a boat voyage that started in Toronto in May and explores the three coasts.
"It originally was supposed to be like a 150th birthday celebration of Canada and as they started planning the trip, because they would be going through a lot of Indigenous lands of First Nations people, the tone of the trip changed quite a lot," says Watson, who was on the 13th leg of the journey on the coast of BC in early October. "In the end what it was, it's like, I think a lot of the stories in these communities we've never heard as Canadians. And it's, I would say, it's shocking, our real history—stuff we're not taught in schools. And having the access to look at someone in the eyes who's lived through some of those shocking things that the Canadian government has done really changes your perspective of the country."
Watson composed a couple quick soundtracks for videos of landscapes while on the journey, but the impact won't end there. "It's definitely going to have an influence on my music," he says. "I mean there's no doubt, It had such an influence on me, so I can't imagine it not having an influence on my music."
