Chris Murphy @ Fox Cabaret -- October 28, 2026

Sloan’s Chris Murphy hit the road recently with a solo acoustic tour going all through BC, and last night he hit the Fox Cabaret in Vancouver. While it was a busy night in town with a couple shows going on, for me the deciding factor was the opener, who I only realised was playing with Murphy the day before the show!

That opener was someone I hadn’t seen play live since 2008(!), Peter Elkas. He took the stage alone with his acoustic guitar, and started the set off with “Atlas”, his heartfelt songs and smooth vocals filling the room. Between songs he chatted, telling stories behind some songs, joking about how inherently silly his harmonica holder looked, or retelling how he met Chris from Sloan & how their tour has been going, with an effortless stage presence.
Other highlights of the set included the heartbreaking “Sweet Nancy” and the incendiary “Burn it Down”, the most rocking song of the set. Near the end, he jumped behind the keys for “Cinder Bridge”, and then finished off the all-too-short set with “Sweet Spot”, his single from a couple years ago featuring his Michael McDonald - inspired vocals.

It was a great set, and I hope to hear more from him soon… or at least not be another couple decades since I see him play again.

It wasn’t long before Chris Murphy took the stage, joking that at this point “all I can do is blow it” as he launched into “Set It Motion” from Never Hear the End of It. From there he wove through a set of his Sloan songs, explaining that due to the collaborative nature of the band he rarely gets a chance to play a range of his works, from fan favourites like “Penpals” to newer songs like “Act Your Ages” to hits like “Coax Me”.

As with Elkas, Murphy also chatted throughout the set. He told jokes & stories, origins of songs, anecdotes from his life & the music industry, and even gently ribbing everyone from Peter Elkas to the audience, his friends in the room, and even other cities on the tour. I won’t name which ones, but let’s just say he and Joel Plaskett might have something in common.

But the crowd was hanging on his every word and note, loving the stories, respectfully quiet other than some light singing along, or singing louder when prompted to “la la la” along with “Autobiography”. Late in the set he played my two favourite Sloan songs, first the fraught love triangle of “The Other Man”, then after doing his “Party Rock” Trick (which consisted of singing quick snippets of songs in rapid fire, mimicking the old infomercials for compilation albums) he wrapped up the main set with the snarky “Underwhelmed”, the crowd joining in.

Once he finished, he just kind of hid off the side of the stage behind a curtain, then reappeared and joked he wouldn’t do an encore unless we could convince Peter Elkas back on stage. He of course popped on to play keys and sing along to “Bells On”. Then after hitting one from the newest Sloan album, “Open Your Umbrellas” Chris left the room with one last singalong, everyone joining in on “The Rest of My Life”.

Before seeing them at the Commodore last year, it had been some time since I had caught Sloan live. But since then, I’ve managed to see Chris Murphy twice more; once with Trans-Canada Highwaymen, and now his solo acoustic show. And even though each show had a different scope, he was always delivers, with a great, funny stage presence and some of the most clever & catchiest songs in CanCon history.

Chris Murphy setlist
Set in Motion
Penpals
G Turns to D
Act Your Ages
I Am the Cancer
The Marquee and the Moon
Coax Me
Autobiography
Fading Into Obscurity
Try to Make It
Deeper Than Beauty
The Other Man
"Party Rock" Ad medley
Underwhelmed
(encore)
Bells On
Open Your Umbrellas
The Rest of My Life

Peter Elkas setlist
Atlas
Party of One
Sturdy Love
Sweet Nancy
Market Street
Burn it Down
Cinder Bridge
Sweet Spot

Trans-Canada Highwaymen @ Commodore Ballroom -- June 06, 2026

Ten years ago, four icons of CanCon alt-rock got together to form Trans-Canada Highwaymen. After some on and off touring and the release of Explosive Hits Vol. 1 — covering some late 60s and 70s Canadian classics — Chris Murphy (Sloan), Craig Northey (Odds), Steven Page (Barenaked Ladies), and Moe Berg (the Pursuit of Happiness) finally made it to Vancouver. And nothing was going to stop me from seeing them (not even a high school reunion).

With no opener, Trans-Canada Highwaymen hit the stage as each member took turn on vocals, starting with Page doing BNL’s “It’s All Been Done”, Craig with “Someone Who’s Cool”, Moe taking over on “Hard to Laugh” and Chris not doing a Sloan song, but Michel Pagliaro’s “Lovin’ You Ain’t Easy”.

That set the stage for the rest of the show with the four members trading off vocals, harmonizing with each other, and rotating around the stage; Chris drummed for most of the night, but each member took their own turn at least once. As well as their own hits, they got some classic covers from their album, and the “Theme from Trans-Canada Highwaymen”, an autobiographical song about the start of the band. All four members were clearly having a ton of fun as they joked and laughed with the crowd, constantly needled not only each other between songs, but even people not on stage when Chris made up a Smugglers song on the spot once they confirmed Grant Lawrence was in the crowd. 

Other highlights were classics like Seven Page rocking “Undun” from The Guess Who and Moe channeling Lifehouse’s “Pretty Lady”. For their own tunes, the crowd was singing along with songs like “Underwhelmed”, the eternally catchy “Jane”, and “She’s So Young”. Near the end of the set, Odds’ “Make You Mad” segued into something of a CanCon Medley, with each member taking turns singing lines from iconic Canadian songs including (but not limited to) The Tragically Hip, 54-50, Loverboy, Bryan Adams, Barney Bentall, BTO, Chilliwack, Doug & The Slugs, and wrapping up with the Sleep Country Canada jingle. 

The main set came to an end with me getting chills as everyone sang along to one of my favourite songs, “Brian Wilson”,  but the band was back out for a couple more. First Andy Kim’s “Rock Me Gently”, before one more Sloan hit “The Rest of My Life” and the song Steven, Craig, and Chris all credited as opening the door for them on the radio, “I’m an Adult Now”.

Page then said that was normally the end of their set, but they had one special surprise for us, introducing Geoffrey Kelly from Spirit of the West as they had the entire commodore singing (and jumping) along to “Home for a Rest” for one of the most fun endings to a show I’ve seen.

One of my favourite ‘unique concert concepts’ is a supergroup getting together and playing a bunch of their individual songs together. I’ve been lucky to see that sort of show a few times, and it could be recency bias, but this was definitely my favourite. It was a great night spending two hours with some incredible musicians celebrating song amazing Canadian music.

setlist
It’s All Been Done (Barenaked Ladies)
Someone Who’s Cool (Odds)
Hard to Laugh (The Pursuit of Happiness)
Lovin’ You Ain’t Easy (Michel Pagliaro)
Theme from Trans-Canada Highwaymen
It Falls Apart (Odds)
Jane (Barenaked Ladies)
Pretty Lady (Lighthouse)
Underwhelmed (Sloan)
Undun (The Guess Who)
Tonight Is a Wonderful Time to Fall in Love (April Wine)
She’s So Young (The Pursuit of Happiness)
The Other Man (Sloan)
The Old Apartment (Barenaked Ladies) 
Make You Mad (Odds)
CanCon Medley
Brian Wilson (Barenaked Ladies)
(Encore)
Rock Me Gently (Andy Kim)
The Rest of My Life (Sloan)
I’m an Adult Now (The Pursuit of Happiness)
Home for a Rest (Spirit of the West)

Sloan: A Tour de Force @ Commodore Ballroom -- November 15, 2025

If I’m being honest, I’ve always been a more casual fan of Sloan. Most of their singles are incredible bangers, going back to the 1900s, but I’ve only dipped in and out of their full albums through the years. That said, I did check out the new one, Based on the Best Seller, and when I realised it’s been about 16 years since the last time I saw the Canadian rock legends live, I knew I needed to fix that with the Vancouver stop of ‘A Tour de Force’ at the Commodore Ballroom. 

There was no opening act for the night, as the house lights went down and the screens flanking the stage showed the “Coming Attractions”, fake short trailers for movies based on a few of the songs off the new album, before the “Feature Presentation” as Chris Murphy, Jay Ferguson, Patrick Pentland, and Andrew Scott took the stage, joined by Gregory Macdonald backing them up on, well, everything.

The Haligonian band started off with “Capitol Cooler” and “Live Forever” from their latest release, before weaving through nearly all of their fourteen(!) albums. Going from one of my favourites, “The Other Man” with its moody narrative off Pretty Together, to the incredibly infectious “Ill Placed Trust” from Never Hear the End of It, and the impeccable melody of “Lines You Amend” from One Chord to Another.

In true Sloan fashion, members rotated around and each took lead vocals for their songs, the others joining in excellent harmonies. Murphey even replacing Scott on the drums when he came up to sing songs like “Baxter” (after being serenaded by the audience due to it being his birthday).

They wrapped up the first half of the night with “Unkind” before announcing they’d be back, and after a half hour intermission the band returned (just in time, as the crowd was starting to get antsy) with my highlight from the new album “Dream Destroyer”.

They kept the energy up through the second half of the evening, from raucous songs like “All Used Up” to more laid back “Witch’s Wand”, and the bouncy “The Rest of My Life” which transitioned perfectly into their energetic smash single “Money City Maniacs”, the stage lights turning red and the whole crowd yelling along.

But they still had a few left in them as they were back with the deep cut “Snowsuit Sound” followed by another one of my favourites, the snarky “Underwhelmed” which one again had the sold out room joining in, and then leading into “The Good in Everyone” for a joyous finale.

It was a very fun show, with Sloan proving to fans old and new just why they’ve earned their status over the last three decades. And hopefully I won’t make it another sixteen years before seeing them again!

set two
Dream Destroyer
Congratulations
Fortune Teller
No Damn Fears
I Can’t Sleep
The Dogs
All Used Up
Witch’s Wand
The Rest of My Life
Money City Maniacs
(encore)
Snowsuit Sound
Underwhelmed
The Good in Everyone

set one
Capitol Cooler
Live Forever
Scratch the Surface
Right to Roam
The Other Man
Ill Placed Trust
Baxter
Traces 
Dream It All Over Again
All I Am Is All You're Not
So Far Down
The Lines You Amend
Take It In
Unkind

Sloan @ Commodore -- 12/15/09

Well, I certainly did not mean to not update for a week, but that's what happens when your computer goes kerblewy. But better late than never, here's my writeup for the Sloan show last week.

I don't know how it was that I had never seen Sloan live before. Maybe cos I've always been a more casual fan, but despite hearing countless times of their excellence live, I just never got (or took) the chance. Well, when I heard they were playing at the Commodore (and for only $20!) I knew I had to rectify this mistake.

The first of two opening bands of the night was Fine Mist. A boy/girl duo from Vancouver who, ironically or not, seemed to come straight out of an eighth grade talent show, Casio Keyboard beats and all. most of the songs consisted of a looped beat and the two of them singing, and, well, if the crowd's reaction (apathy) was any indication, more than a few people felt the way I did.

Magneta Lane was up next. I had seen them before a couple years ago with Small Sins, but didn't really remember too much of them. They weren't bad, but had a kind of Generic All-Girl Band sound to them (which is hard to describe, but if you heard it you'd know). Some catchy stuff, but a few of the songs were a bit same-y.

And finally, Sloan! They started out proving they weren't taking any crap by kicking out not one but two people for general jackassery (I think) by the time the second song was over. They focused most of the set on the new EP, Hit & Run, and some of the older hits. Even though I wasn't yet familiar with the new EP, that didn't stop me from enjoying the hell out of the show. Incredibly tight, swapping instruments throughout the night and fantastically engaging, they proved why they're so highly regarded as a live band. Even the old songs they made fresh, but not unrecognizable. At one point segueing from The Other Man right into Money City Maniacs, both songs were great live, with the latter having some nifty siren-like lighting -- resulting in the pic here; those are lights, not pyrotechnics. They ended the main set with an insanely energetic She Says What She Means, and came back for a few more older songs in the encore, including Coax Me, which say the lead singer of Magneta Lane come out to help on vocals. They finished off the night with The Good In Everyone which, again, tore the place down.
Even though they played for about an hour and a half, the set seemed way too short. I know they have a massive catalogue of songs, so I didn't expect to hear everything I wanted, but there were a few I wish they had done. That aside, it was still a great set from a legendary Canadian band.