The Balconies are a three piece from Ottawa, who have recently relocated to Toronto to attend school. They consist of Jacquie Neville, Steve Neville and Liam Jaeger. On the CD you can hear the occasional three part harmonies for mostly upbeat, catchy song with super catchy riffs.
The stand out song on the CD has to be Battle Royale. I played this for Ricky and his response to me was “Man, that Balconies song you played for me was awesome”. My response to him was “Yah, too bad it is the only one like it on the album”. That sounds awful since I really enjoy The Balconies CD. It is a solid pop album that sounds like it came out of Sweden, not Ottawa. Other solid tracks include 300 Pages and Serious Bedroom, but really, Battle Royal is a stand alone entity that deserves some attention.
The Balconies were opening up for Immaculate Machine and Dog Day. I spent most of the show sitting down in the back, but I did move up to the front for a couple of songs. While in both locations I overheard two different sets of people say to their friends “Hey, these guys are pretty good”. They were right. The tracks on the CD translated really well at the Horseshoe and they sounded fantastic. They opened up with an extended version of Battle Royal, which was awesome. Half way through the song it became apparent what the story of the show would be. The story of The Balconies begins with Jacquie Neville. She is a rock star. Her beautiful vocals, her hard and catchy guitar playing and her stage confidence reminded me of other Canadian female rock veterans like Emily Hains and Giselle Webber (Hot Springs, /Giselle Numba One) The one part harmonies of Jacquie Neville and her guitar playing are what I remember most from the show. Should they consider ever changing the name of the band, may I suggest Jacquie Neville & Friends?
One thing that was painful was their stage banter. The only time they really spoke to the crowd was when the drummer mentioned that their CD was for sale over on the side table. Even muttering those few words, it was obvious he had never attended a Toastmasters meeting. He started to say something in addition to his rehearsed “buy our CD” line, but he was cut off when one of his band mates broke into the next song. Awkward.