Spirit of the West

Last night at the Exhibition I saw Spirit of the West for the fifth or sixth time. Even though I don't listen to them as often as I used to I always make it a point to see them live whenever I can. They have been together over 20 years and they still put on a helluva show and they can still produce brilliant albums. I credit SOTW and R.E.M. with opening the gates to me discovering great music. I still remember that random day when I was in Grade 9 and I was listening to absolute crap music like MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice so I took it upon myself to go the music store and buy R.E.M.'s Out of Time and Spirit of the West's Go Figure. I listened to those albums non-stop and I've made it a point to buy each new CD these bands have put out ever since. Of course it was cool to hear the obvious classics like "Home For a Rest," "Save This House," "Political," and "And If Venice is Sinking," but it was nice to hear four new songs from their stellar 2004 album Star Trails. "King of Scotland" and "The Wedding Speech" sounded great amongst the rest of their better known tunes. Great show, great band.