[ATTENDED: November 13, 2019] Crown Lands
Crown Lands are a duo from Canada. As with a lot of rocking duos, they play riff-heavy rock. But they change things around a bit. In their bio they say they are huge fans of Rush, and while they don’t do anything as complex as Rush, you can hear the Rush influence all over their songs. The size of Cody Bowles’ drum set, the little high hat fills, and some of the percussion. And Guitarist Kevin Comeau plays a doubleneck Rickenbacker and some of the chord progressions are distinctly Rush-ian. And yet you would never hear them and think you were listening to Rush.
Comeau plays guitar and bass pedals which add a really full sound to their live show. Bowles has a really powerful voice with a truly remarkable range. He can do Robert Plant/Geddy Lee high screams, he also has a lower register for the body of most songs. And their stage presence is pretty great too.
The have two EPS out and are planning a finishing up a full length now. Most of the songs from this set came from their unreleased record, and these songs are great.
It was really fun watching Comeau play. Even though he is kind of anchored to his station, what with foot pedals and keyboards, he was still pretty mobile. I loved watching him switch from guitars to keys and back in “Spit It Out.” I also liked that he used a slide, but not in every song.
I was disappointed that “Being Right” opens with the lyric “hey baby!” (just like the first Rush album, actually). But it’s from their first EP, and their lyrics have gotten more sophisticated since then. Despite that weird lyric, the song rips and the riff is top notch. I also like that in the middle of the song he kind of talks, and he sounds a bit like Kurt Vile (that’s a broad range of vocal comparison there) and there’s a very pretty mellow section in there too.
When they played “Mountain,” Comeau told us that they are passionate about indigenous people’s rights. From an interview at Everything is Noise, he explains
Crown Land is stolen land. Cody is half Mi’qmaw and spent a lot of time on a reserve in Ontario in his earlier years. Both of us strongly believe in reconciliation. Canada has a very dark history surrounding the mistreatment of our Indigenous Peoples. Our song and video “Mountain” highlights the horrors of colonization and the implementation of residential schools.‘
I love the lyrics of this song and the riff kicks butt too.I saw through the devil
He promised to take our land
I ran through the levee
Seeds of the dream in handThey came ‘cross the ocean
With all their loaded guns
Fear then swept my people
Eclipsed in the hatred spun
The new song “End of the Road” has a very cool Rush sound (in this clip, that chord progression is very Rush). It sounded great. That influence is also evident (but less so) in “The Forest Song.”
Cody came out from behind the drums to sing “Sundance.” It was nice to finally see him–I was on the far side of the stage from him and he was enveloped by his kit. But it was an amazing way for him to show off his vocals. I hated that the crowd wasn’t fully absorbed because he sounded amazing and was clearly giving it his all.
For the final song,”Context” Comeau brought out the double neck guitar. I feel like a guitar like that should be saved for an epic song. And that’s what “Context” is. It’s 6 minutes long with multiple parts. It was very cool watching him play the guitar parts. But when he switched to the bass neck, it was fully justified because the bass part sounded very different, and very heavy.
It was really fantastic set. When I listened to them briefly before the show I wasn’t all that excited to hear them, but they really blew me away.
And after the show, they were hanging out chatting. I talked to both of them and they were super nice and friendly. I really hope they take off and I hope they come back our way again.
SETLIST
- Spit It Out [from Rise Over Run EP]
- Being Right [from Mantra EP]
- Mountain *
- End Of The Road *
- The Forest Song *
- Sundance *
- Context ** from unreleased new album
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