Rural Alberta Advantage

It's difficult to tell whether Toronto's Rural Alberta Advantage are gunning for indie cred, pop stardom or tour support for Blue Rodeo. With vocal stylings and lyrical motifs evoking the paler end of roots music and the sad keys and saccharine melodies of '80s anthem ballads, they have a tendency to sound like bedroom emo dudes meet Irish pub band. A particularly good quasi-Celtic sad sack act, of course, given their impressive rhythm, commercial appeal and lack of U2 covers. But the half of the crowd that cleared out midway through their set didn't appear particularly impressed.