Holly McNarland, where is your Gnarliness. Live with 5440 Vanvouver

First of all I want to thank Rock 101, for hooking me up with two free tickets at the doors of the sold out event. I was just about to wander off and find something else to do when I’d found there were no more tickets, but getting in for free and spending that money on getting sauced was way better in the end.
I was curious to see Holly McNarland especially, being one of the few female artists I enjoyed hearing on the only rock radio station in Prince George. I was initially captivated by her boldness and angry lyrics, like in songs Do You Get High, Elmo, and Coward it was quite a contrast to other songs from female artist I knew, like the way too happy Soak up the Sun by Sheryl Crow, which I last saw advertised on tv for a mixed CD for kids under 8. Whether it was expressing rage at an x-boyfriend, or singing about battling the bottle she was certainly much more edgy than any up and coming pop stars like the young Britneys or Christinas. Now I’m not saying there’s no angry female artist out there, it’s just I was young and she left a bit of an impression being one of the first women I’d ever heard use the F-word with real emotion. This emotion I could tell was real and genuine, something lacking in the generic mix of mainstream hits on the radio, and this is what I wanted to see when I went out to see her on october 19th. I’d listened briefly to her new album, and knew I might be disappointed, especially if she played too many songs from it, and of corse she did. The crowd perked up a little bit and was able to sing along when she did play one of her older hits, Numb, but other than that I thought it was a let down. She’d recently started performing again after having a baby girl, and she still wanted to pretend she was hardcore, talking about how she would be drinking jagermeister after the show, but her edge and feeling of raw emotion was gone. She is destined to be listened to by volvo driving soccer moms and that under 8 kids mix album I was talking about.

~ by dilvo8 on October 24, 2007.