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Apr 28, 2023 By Matthew Berlyant Photography by Matthew Berlyant Web Exclusive

Sloan is really a modern marvel any way you look at it. Not only do they have not one, not two, not three, but (count ‘em) four excellent singer-songwriters, some who play multiple instruments even during their raucous live shows (bassist Chris Murphy is a notably amazing drummer, for instance), but they have now put out their thirteenth album, last year’s Steady, in which they sound as animated, excited, and full of life (or perhaps even more so) than they did back in 1992 (over thirty years ago now!) when their debut album Smeared landed.

It helps, of course, that Steady is excellent, one of their very best albums in a career full of great albums and well-titled for a band as consistent as they are, and so the material they played on this evening from that album (they played the entire record, though not in order) fit in perfectly with the classics they played throughout two sets (there was no opener, so it was like they opened for themselves, sort of), the first focusing more on Steady highlights like the absolutely fantastic opener “Scratch the Surface,” a glammy gem from Patrick Pentland that’s this writer’s favourite from the record.

The second set and three-song encore mixed Steady material alongside utter Sloan classics going back three decades like “The Other Man” (from 2001’s underrated Pretty Together), “Money City Maniacs,” (which closed the second set and is possibly their most well-known song) “People of the Sky” and the Television-inspired “The Marquee and the Moon.” The short three-song encore featured their first hit “Underwhelmed” and show closer “The Good In Everyone,” ending the show on yet another high note and leaving fans both drooling and wanting more despite a fun night of rock and roll. And that’s another thing about Sloan shows and especially this particular one that differentiates them from many other acts. The almost capacity crowd was excited from the moment things started and the excitement never let up, with the band clearly feeding off of the crowd’s insatiable energy and joy. Never miss a Sloan show if you are able to attend.