Saga dominates Edmonton Rock Music Festival

Posted on August 18, 2018 By Derek Owen Entertainment, Front Slider, Music, music

Edmonton might have been covered in a thick blanket of asthma-inducing white acrid smoke, but none of that stuff was being blown during Saga’s performance down at Hawrelak Park as part of Friday night festivities at the Edmonton Rock Festival.

Most Canadians are clueless how big this band was and still is internationally. Last time they were around these parts, our current Prime Minister’s voice was several years away from breaking, and the band was touring what has become their best known album, 1982’s Worlds Apart, riding the wave of their first two big hits, On The Loose and Wind Him Up.

So where the heck have they been since?

Short answer: in Europe. Saga are acknowledged elder statesmen of Canadian progressive rock thanks to massive success everywhere but Canada. Since their last big hit, the band have released eight live albums, all recorded somewhere in continental Europe. When the band decided to call it quits in 2017, they spent three months doing a farewell tour of the continent, playing to largely sell-out crowds in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany – the latter country essentially bankrolling their career since the mid-1980s.

All Canada got in 2017 from the band was three gigs in Ontario, one in Grand Forks, BC, and one in Calgary.

Friday’s show allowed them to make up for lost time. While not the headliner – former Eagles member Don Felder was – Saga were graciously given 90 minutes, allowing the band to construct a long enough set to throw all their best known material at us, plus allowing them to dig a bit into their extensive back catalogue.

They kicked off the evening’s proceedings with lively rocker Take a Chance, from 1985’s Misbehaviour, a guitar-heavy number embellished by lead singer Michael Sadler’s soaring vocal melody, followed by a machine gun tear through of the early classics Careful Where You Step, How Long, and deep cut Mouse in a Maze.

Saga’s style is largely defined by guitarist Ian Crichton’s compositional tendency towards using intricate staccato riffs. Song after song, it’s Saga’s musical signature, and these pieces, all at least 30 years old, are just as engaging now as they were then – provided you’re a fan of progressive rock, that’s always the required caveat.

Saga is more accessible than most of their peers. There are no 20-minute tunes based on unicorns or Ayn Rand novels. Their style is defined largely by their strong individual skill sets on their instruments, and as their fans well know, there are no slouches in this band. Virtually all of their songs have intricately-composed structures, are keenly managed through the juxtaposition of Crichton’s playing style counter-posed with the fast and fluid neoclassical style of main keyboardist Jim Gilmour. These musicians never forget the importance of anchoring intricate song structures around catchy melodies. Three of the best showcases for their ambitious compositional style came later in the set – You’re Not Alone, Humble Stance and perpetual live favorite Don’t Be Late – all wrapped around intricate guitar-keyboard interplay and brought to rousing, majestic crescendos with some back-and-forth soloing.

The band trotted out their three big hits – On The Loose, played to great crowd response; surely K-Rock is largely responsible for this – early in the set; Scratching the Surface, a down-tempo keyboard-driven ballad off 1983’s Heads Or Tales that allowed Crichton’s fingers a few minutes reprieve, sung by  keyboardist Jim Gilmour and embellished by replacement bassist-keyboardist Dusty Chesterfield – and the big finale Wind Him Up, arguably their best known song, bringing the set to its rousing conclusion.

Canada may not have added much to the band’s coffers over the years, but their welcome performance at this year’s Rockfest was a long overdue tip of the hat towards Western Canadian aficionados of their work – as well as the average fan in attendance who got to experience, for perhaps the first and last time, the reasons why Saga has become one of the greatest musical exports to ever come out of this country.

The Edmonton Rock Music Festival continues Saturday night with Los Lobos, Glass Tiger, Honeymoon Suite and more.