Winter suddenly became cold last week. Or maybe winter just became winter. On the coldest of nights, it’s easy to seek refuge at Amigo’s Cantina and check out live music and tasty beer. So, on Friday night, with a bronchial cough teasing me like a rude poke in the ribs, I purchased a pint from my favourite bartender and sat down to enjoy performances by local Zachary Lucky and Regina’s The Lazy MKs.
Lucky kicked off the night to a polite crowd with a rare performance on electric guitar. Armed with ’61 Guild, the local songster employed an impressive finger-picking style that is often overlooked, performing old favourites as well as new songs that will soon appear on an upcoming album due this winter. I grinned into my beer as he honoured my request for a Jackson Browne tune, adding his own flair to it, and also dishing out mad props to the Karpinka Brothers, who were amongst the captivated audience members.
Waiting only long enough for chumps like me to enjoy a shivering smoke break, The Lazy MKs quickly took the stage. The Queen City trio was almost a write-off for me as a self-indulgent jam band. Featuring drums, bass and pedal steel as the main instruments, the band ripped through uppity tunes and displayed sheer mastery over their instruments. I was ready to leave, fearing an impending 12-minute pedal steel solo or similar wankery. However, after further inspection, I realized The Lazy MKs had much more to offer than just fast fingers.
Though the instruments they played hinted at a country, folk or bluegrass sound – and truly, it would be easy to confuse one of their songs for one of the many instrumental jams on any Sadies record – The Lazy MKs showed true diversity by being virtually indescribable by any one genre and ensuring each song was very different from the last.
Truthfully, I wanted to hate this band, but I couldn’t. The diversity in their compositions, and containing each song to only three minutes or so, made them exciting and completely unpredictable.
The worst part of the evening? When last call came and went, and we were forced to shuffle back into the discourteous cold.