Live Review: Storm Large and the Balls, Thirsty Toad Pub, Ottawa, ON, October 21, 2006

Rocktober continued yesterday with another show in the "Party Like a Rockstar" series put on by Ottawa's Thirsty Toad Pub. This time, it was a wind from the Pacific Northwest that blew in as Storm Large and a couple of her bandmates, the Balls, played an afternoon show under a tent with about 400 of her newest friends. (I know at least one - and perhaps both Balls in attendance yesterday - used to be in the 90s alt-pop band Everclear.)

Yesterday's show could have quite possibly been the best live performance I've ever seen by a female vocalist. You know "The Great Gig in the Sky" on Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" album? This was it with lots of dirty jokes and off the wall cover tunes thrown in.

Storm first appeared to sing Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" with openers The Sam Hill Band at the end of their set, coming back after a quick equipment tune up with a version of Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" followed by some big-time voice gymnastics set to the Star Trek theme. Then, her and her band laid the lyrics and melody of the Eurythmics' "Missionary Man" over top of "Enter Sandman"'s riff, did the same thing with "Tainted Love" over the aforementioned Everclear's "Santa Monica", and Abba's "Take A Chance On Me" over Iron Butterfly's "In A Gadda Da Vida". No American Idol reject here.

She also performed a lounge version of Black Sabbath's "N.I.B.", a pychotized "Hopelessly Devoted to You" by Olivia Newton-John, a couple of Halen tunes ("Ain't Talkin' Bout Love" and "You Really Got Me") as well as Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" (sheer, chilling brilliance) with The Sam Hill Band and a Pixies tune about the Caribbean that I didn't recognize before launching into her original tune titled "Ladylike".





And not only can she sing, the girl is damn funny. She did a breakup tune called "I Want You To Die" that makes Adam Sandler's ode to the ex from the Wedding Singer look like child's play. She also took some solid potshots at vegetarianism and expressed much love for Canada (not only because of health care but for also our above-average attractiveness).

The one complaint that I have is that the bulk of her tunes were played with only keys and bass accompaniment. I would have liked to hear a little more guitar work, but that's just me. I'm sure no one went home disappointed, though, and she better mean it when she says she'll be back to Ottawa.

Pure entertainment, and if what we saw yesterday is any indication, I think that for some of the talent we saw this summer on "Rock Star: Supernova", not getting chosen for the gig was probably the best thing that ever happened to them becaues they wouldn't have been able to spread their wings and bring their own vibe to us. Storm Large is the real deal - no pretense, 100% humble, loves what she does, and just as beautiful as you imagine her to be.

Although I'm not going to make the Ryan Star show on November 4 or the Lukas/Gilby/Dilana/Josh show on November 11, I'll be at the Toby Rand gig in early December for sure, so check back for a review of that show.

Overall rating: 8.25/10

Bonus YouTube footage here.