Amherst blues band play a lengthy set at Ducky’s.
Last Friday night, blues band DC Smith and the Streamliners played a show at Ducky’s, occupying the spot where the foosball table normally sits. Hailing from Amherst, N.S., the group played a mostly upbeat blues version of the blues aimed at getting couples up and moving on the night of Valentine’s Day. Their lengthy show lasted for almost three and a half hours, and was prolonged by a pair of long breaks that divided their set up into three portions.
Band members were all dressed festively in red with the only exception being the bassist, who assured the crowd that he was wearing red underwear. They played the blues and only the blues for the entire night, switching between their own originals and classic blues covers. Each was adorned with an extended guitar solo that drove a long jam at the end and most relied heavily on a harmonica to transition from verse to verse.
During the first part of their musical set they played to a bar of mostly older couples who were clearly there with the intention of listening and dancing to the blues. Only a handful of couples were present and even fewer were into the music enough to dance to it.
As the night progressed, the crowd changed, and the atmosphere with it. The crowd began to become more populated with students as the Sweetest Little Thing began to let out, and the socially acceptable hour to be at the bar was closer at hand. At this point, the role of the Streamliners transitioned into background music rather than the centre of attention as the crowd of students in the bar were more focused on the holiday festivities.
Given how long they had already been playing, the third set of DC Smith and the Streamliners came as a bit of a surprise. Nevertheless, they continued with their blend of cover songs and recently composed originals. To pander to an audience that consisted of almost entirely students, the band tried out a bit of showmanship that included the solo behind the head trick popularized by the late Jimi Hendrix. It was successful, at least to some degree, as, at the conclusion of their set, a table near the stage adamantly demanded an encore that the band seemed more than happy to oblige.
