Photographs by Sean Chin.
“Another storm has passed”, Kevin Drew said wide eyed. Like most of us, the feeling of doom quickly subsided. We could enjoy the show without rain, and Drews set was one that was to catch us off guard quite a few times. With the nice weather matching Drews strong charisma, it was time to enjoy yet another Broken Social Scene related set. The beauty of that group is that its members don’t even have to be together as said band: Their solo shows still contain the same heart and spirit. Kevin Drews was no different. He is such a natural talent that he could have just woken up and performed for all we know. In his black cap and buttoned up shirt, he performed a chunk of his solo material. It was a good time and a warm prelude to Modest Mouses set.
Drew was ecstatic to be opening for Modest Mouse, proclaiming that they were one of his all time favorite bands. As he is very in-the-moment, he then went on to say “this next song’s about sex”. He continued with his radio hit Good Sex: the kind of song that shows how open he truly is. It’s this earnest honesty that, perhaps, leads many to be taken aback by his warmth. I met him at Field Trip last month and it was unusual how nice and down to earth such a massive Canadian musician truly was.
That is possibly why some of his good friends hopped on stage to surprise him mid set. With Leslie Feist popping in during his second song and Emily Haines hopping to his side later on, not even Drew had any idea they would be there. During his final song, of which he tried to perform alone, he wished to perform a Broken Social Scene song. With neither his acoustic or electric guitars being fit to perform with, he quickly resorted to using his keyboard. At the spur of the moment he told us to yell and forget everything that is holding us down. Feist and Haines returned to help him out, and it resulted in an almost therapeutic closer. He said it best: Some friends stay, some friends leave, and some just want to “chill”. Kevin Drew is someone I wouldn’t mind chilling with whenever he is in town, because he is not just a natural talent: he is a great friend to anyone passionate about music.
