BRAEDEN HURSCH

The Wooden Sky are familiar faces in Saskatoon’s concert lineup.

On Oct. 2 and 3, Toronto-based indie band The Wooden Sky rocked out at Amigos Cantina. Currently touring Canada to promote their new album Let’s Be Ready, The Wooden Sky must have decided that two shows were better than one.

The band is a mainstay in the Canadian indie scene, playing in Saskatchewan several times a year including last year’s Ness Creek Music Festival.

The polished and practiced sound of The Wooden Sky stems directly from the extensive touring and live performances that the band does. Regardless of the venue in which they are playing — whether it be the open air stage at Ness Creek or the enclosed space of The Bassment — they have exceptional sound quality.

The desire for a clean sound was evident from mic check as the band adjusted dials and levels then broke into a full rendition of “Child of the Valley.”

Many bands, a simple “check, check” into the microphone would do before leaving the stage, but The Wooden Sky had fans running from their tables towards the stage thinking that the show had already begun without an opening act.

“Sorry, just doing a bit of a sound check,” apologized lead singer Gavin Gardiner after the applause had died down.

Opening act High Ends arrived onstage shortly following The Wooden Sky’s sound check and had the place moving to their rock and synth sounds. High Ends displayed strong harmonies and exceptional musicianship and left the crowd hoping that they would be back again for their own concert soon. Yukon Blonde’s Jeffrey Innes created High Ends only earlier this year and the group released their first album Super Class on Oct. 7.

In true Amigos fashion, The Wooden Sky walked onto the stage at midnight to play to an expectant — and in some cases extremely drunk — crowd of Saskatoon fans.

The venue was near capacity when the band broke into their first song “Child of the Valley” — this time not as a sound test. The set-list was well conceived, as it was weighted more towards known and loved songs with new material interspersed in moderation. A 13-song set was performed which included some upbeat crowd favourites like “Bit Part,” “Angels” and “City of Lights,” as well as some of their more stately songs such as “Dancing At My Window” and “Something Hiding For Us In The Night.”

Like any band with a hefty musical catalogue, The Wooden Sky saved their best for last with a four song encore including “Oslo,” “Oh My God” and “Late King Henry.” They then surprised the audience by closing with a cover of Tom Petty’s “American Girl.”

The late scheduling that Amigos is so well-known for played a factor in the slight thinning of the crowd towards the end of the show, but the appreciation they had for the high quality bands was evident in the chants for one more song even after the show was undeniably over.

Afterwards the band stayed around to talk to the crowd at the merchandise table. The members were genuinely happy to converse with people who stayed for the whole show despite their blood alcohol level.

A remarkable thing about the crowd at The Wooden Sky’s show was the number of people who were singing along word for word. Saskatoon’s appreciation for and knowledge of indie bands is constantly progressing. Yet it is interesting that a band like The Wooden Sky needs to play two consecutive shows in a small venue instead of one show in a larger venue.

There is a need in Saskatoon for an intermediate-sized venue that can stand between venues like Amigos or Capitol Music Club and larger venues like O’Brians Event Centre and TCU Place. If Saskatoon gained a venue that could fill up for one night of The Wooden Sky it would bring other great acts to the city.

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Flickr/Ming Wu