So Faint is the new project from Hannah Georgas & long-time friend Lyn Heinemann, and with their self titled album released last month, they went on a small tour to celebrate! The Vancouver show landed at the Fox Cabaret which quickly sold out, as clearly I wasn’t the only one to see the new band, plus the support for the night.

That opener was none other than Ryan Goldmouth (aka Ryan Guldemond from Mother Mother). He took the stage alone with an acoustic guitar to play his own solo material, from his GLDMTH album and testing some new songs, the room filling with his distinctive voice — both in terms of vocals and writing. Songs ranged from “Keep to Reading” namedropping come classic books & authors, “Cindy Sherman” about his unrequited crush for the artist, and “Maybe” dedicated to a friend’s hatred for his father.

Throughout his set, Ryan would pause to tell stories, give context to songs, and chatted with the superfans in the front row, some who had travelled overseas for the show. During “The People” he even called someone up to the stage where they continued a tradition of taking a photo while wearing a recursive shirt of their previous photo(s).

He finished off with an old Mother Mother tune “Ball Cap”, inviting another fan up to perform the whistling. Ryan’s always had a captivating presence on stage with Mother Mother, and that shone through when he was up there on his own.

Thanks to the show’s curfew, it was a quick turnaround before So Faint took the stage, Hannah Georgas and Lyn Heinemann joined by some familiar faces in their backing band; Feurd on guitar, Rob Driscoll on bass, and drummer Tasy Hudson. They started off the set with their catchy single “Fully Slow”, paying through the new self titled album as the pair’s voices blended beautifully on songs like the heartbreaking ballad “Devotion is a Mess” and the soaring “Say The End”.

Part way through the set, Lyn took over for a couple solo songs, covering Hannah’s “Shortie”, turning the dance pop banger into an almost sad lament (still a banger though) and then a song from her old band Portico, which I didn’t catch the name of. Then they switched off, as Hannah came out with Feurd for a few songs of her own; first “Glass Eye” from Lyn’s old band Drawn Ship, then inviting Ryan back on stage for vocals on “Robotic” an absolutely gorgeous version of “Enemies”.

From there, the full band returned with one of my favourites on the album, “Temporary Mirror”, before Lyn joked they only had a few more, because that's all they knew. And after “Economist”, they wrapped up the night with the bang, the energetic “Chain Chain Chain” with the pair exclaiming they were “the motherfucking sea, baby”.

Going into the show I was excited, both because I was into the album and because I hadn’t seen Hannah play for a couple years, and it definitely lived up to the excitement. Hannah, Lyn, and Ryan all have ties to Vancouver & the music scene, and seemed thrilled & honoured to be in the sold out room, and were also feeding off the outpouring of love from the crowd. Add to that, as both Hannah and Lyn mentioned, Ryan was the one to introduce them twenty-some-odd years ago, it felt like a very special night.

setlsit
Fully Slow
Begin Again
Assistant's Theme
Devotion Is A Mess
Favourite
Say The End
Shortie [Hannah Georgas cover]
[Portico cover]
Glass eye [Drawn Ship cover]
Robotic (w/ Ryan)
Enemies
Temporary Mirror
Dreamlike
Economist
Chain Chain Chain