Sloan at the Crocodile Café
May 6, 2005, Seattle
I spent my youth listening to Sloan and now we’re growing old together. It’s hard to believe that it has been nearly 13 years since the “Fab Four” from Halifax released the Peppermint EP. They may have a few gray hairs these days (except for Chris Murphy, who mysteriously has not aged a single day since 1992), but they are still in fine form.
I’ve had a lot of cheap beer spilled on me while watching Sloan perform at shitty outdoor festivals in Canada over the years, so it was a treat to see them in Seattle’s cozy Crocodile Café. I was curious to see how they would go over with an American audience, especially in the city that spawned grunge: the sound that the band quickly rejected in favor of the bright, melodic confections that graced their 1994 masterpiece, Twice Removed. Unfortunately, because their label (DGC) wanted “Nirvana North”, it refused to promote the album in the US, and Sloan remains a “cult” band in America to this day despite their mainstream success and radio “hits” at home. As the joke goes, the band’s career goal is to win a Grammy for “Best New Artist” the same year that they win a “Lifetime Achievement” award at the Junos.