Hollerado Live in Peterborough –  February 6th, 2016

By: Rhiannon Johnson

Being a bartender at a local music venue in a relatively small city, I see a lot of bands. Some more memorable than others, some I recognize, others that I don’t- Hollerado that just recently played has been one of the bands that I did recognize.

The first song that came to mind when thinking about this particular band was one of their original singles, “Juliet” an upbeat summer hit from their debut album “Record in a Bag” released in 2009. It was around this time, perhaps the year after that I saw them at Peterborough Wolf Stock, own play on Wakestock, or at least I think that’s what it was. I was in my very early 20s thrilled that I got to experience beer gardens on a beach, despite the $10 price ticket for a can of Coors Light and the beach having an inner city location with a nasty reputation of e-coli warnings.

Now in my mid-20s the roles have reversed and I’ve found myself serving a crowd of very early 20-somethings moderately prices domestic beers while the band gears up to play their catalogue of upbeat summer hits. That’s the first thing that I really notice about the show, how young the demographic is. Not that this is really surprising as their sound is reminiscent of late 90s pop-punk that packed small venues, similar to the Red Dog, with dewy eyed teens.

Taking into consideration that the band has released two albums in an almost ten years span, they delivered their hits accurately and with a surprising amount of energy most of which I found emanating from their newest member, a synth girl who’s smile never wavered.

I was taken aback by how many songs I did recognize during their set, which ended with a spirited Blink-182 cover. The show was over by 12:30am, which seemed surprisingly early since the first band went on at 10:30pm. While they have a few recognizable songs, the overall body of work is not entirely memorable or unique, and they can easily be lost in the sea of Canadian indie-rock found being played in any local music bar on any given weekend.