Sheepdogs bring "Backroad Boogie" tour to Wingham Town Hall Theatre

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

Last Friday night, the Wingham Town Hall Theatre, which had been sold out for months, was the place to be as The Sheepdogs, the beloved Saskatchewan-based rock band, made its Wingham stop on the band’s “Backroad Boogie” tour of smaller, off-the-beaten-path locales across the country.

 

Perhaps the band was a little early arriving, as the band noted that the North Huron municipal office remained a bustling workplace until about 4:30 p.m. when the band shared its green room space with some municipal workers until quitting time arrived.

 

The band opened promptly at 9:15 p.m. with “How Late How Long” from 2012’s self-titled album, though the band’s version on this night more closely resembled the original arrangement from the 2011 EP Five Easy Pieces, which takes its name from the 1970 Bob Rafelson film that earned Jack Nicholson his first-ever Best Actor Academy Award nomination.

 

The set continued with more recent fan favourites like “I’ve Got a Hole Where My Heart Should Be”, “Southern Dreaming” and “Bad Lieutenant”, another film reference, this time to Abel Ferrara’s 1992 effort starring Harvey Keitel. It’s far less family-friendly than Five Easy Pieces, though I don’t suspect either film has been called “family-friendly” by many.

 

“Cool Down/Kiss the Brass Ring” is always a concert favourite for fans, and it arrived right on time, bringing together perhaps the most relaxed point of the night with the one with the most guitar-propelled energy.

 

It should be mentioned that a handful of shows on this tour, including the Wingham show, brought about the return of Bailieboro’s Jimmy Bowskill to the band. Bowskill was the band’s guitarist from 2015 into 2022, but left to pursue other projects. However, Bowskill stepped up to help the guys on a few dates on this tour when current guitarist Ricky Paquette had to rush to his wife’s side as they were expecting a baby. (“Have a nice kid, or whatever!” well-wished lead singer Ewan Currie on the band’s social media while making the announcement. At the Wingham show, Currie informed the audience that said kid had not yet arrived.)

 

The show then slowed right down as the guys all gathered around a singular microphone for an unamplified, acoustic rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Lodi”, featuring some mandolin and melodica, instruments that betting odds may not have favoured to be featured that night.

 

The band then amped things up as part of the beginning of the end of the show, playing “Feeling Good”, “I Don’t Know” and “Nobody” to lead into a brief encore break that was just long enough to grab a t-shirt or a... bottle of water, as it was a dry show. (Currie noted the lively nature of the parking lot before the show and its potential connection to the dry nature of the show.)
The audience remained seated for much of the show, but as the band approached its encore break, Currie encouraged everyone to stand and dance. Despite the show’s aforementioned dryness, the audience was more than happy to oblige.
In the end, it was “Whipping Post”, a wild and sprawling Allman Brothers Band cover, that brought the show to a close.

 

Before the band receded into the night - sources tell me the guys called Blyth home for the night - bassist Ryan Gullen really lauded the communities the band has been visiting as part of the tour, including Wingham. He also thanked the volunteers at the theatre, shouting out “Carol” specifically, who had taken care of the band over the course of the day.

 

The Sheepdogs finished the Ontario portion of the Backroad Boogie 2024 tour on March 18 in Lindsay before heading east for six Quebec dates, wrapping up on March 30 in Saint-Casimir, a municipality of about 1,800 people around an hour west of Quebec City.

 

Daniel Romano’s Outfit played a blistering opening set for The Sheepdogs, playing to a nearly-full house. Pulling from its Brian Jonestown Massacre-like album output of recent years (including solo work, albums with his band, live recordings and “The Archive Series”, Romano released 15 titles between 2018 and 2022), Romano and his band played a robust and sprawling set, winning over audience members one by one until the end of their set, which was met with uproarious applause.