Written by Greg Ackerman
Watching Yukon Blonde play an off night (Monday) at downtown Austin club, Barracuda on the back-patio stage recalled dozens of mid-tier acts of high quality that come through Austin each year but still haven’t gotten the recognition they deserve. It’s a bit puzzling how these bands don’t get their due despite the talent and experience on stage.
The Canadian act broke onto the larger scene as an indie rock act in 2005. The band was named one of the top ten Canadian groups likely to break by 2010. Stateside that has yet to happen but it should have. They’re that good. And versatile. Like most talented bands, Yukon Blonde’s sound has evolved over the past 13 years from indie rock to classic rock to a hybrid fusion of those styles. The changes appear to have come both out of necessity and creative growth.
That evolution is ultimately a good thing for music fans. The 150 or so people who made it out to an early show (YB kicked off at 8:30 p.m.) on a school night we rewarded with an outstanding performance by the quintet led by singer and chief songwriter, Jeff Innes. The set list ran the gamut from spare indie-rock tunes to classic rock ballads to this amazing, vaguely psychedelic indie-rock song in the second half of the 45-minute show that featured stunning guitar riffs by Brandon Scott. Roll video around 5:50…
The song came just before Yukon Blonde’s Spotify hit, I Wanna Be Your Man off their most recent album, 2015’s “On Blonde” which many audience members sang along to. Given the off night and relatively small crowd the Canadian rockers turned in a surprisingly good performance. Any fan of tight, rocking indie-rock bands would be foolish to miss this act next time they come through Austin.
Yukon Blond complete their American tour with a handful of West Coast dates before heading back to Vancouver setting up a string of dates across Canada in December.
