At the legendary Wheel Club in Montreal, Toronto’s The Foggy Hogtown Boys weather a sweltering night to deliver a fantastic set of hard-driving bluegrass music.
By the time The Foggy Hogtown Boys
took the stage, The Wheel Club was stifling with the heat of hot bodies and an even hotter set from Notre Dame de Grass. On the night of June 17 in Montreal, though, the headliners from Toronto were not to be outdone.
The audience squirmed in their seats and sweated as much as their pitchers of beer until this superb bluegrass quintet took the stage. With the first notes of Bill Monroe's "Highway of Sorrow," the listeners were drawn into the music by FHB's perfect balance of mournful vocals and the frenetic swing of their traditional bluegrass line-up.
Lead singer and guitarist Chris Coole commented throughout the set that this was perhaps the most he had ever perspired during a show. Nevertheless, he and the rest of the band displayed amazing stamina as he belted out covers like Ralph Stanley's "Bootleg John" and originals like "Don't Give Up on Me," a touching tribute to his family.
Frequently, Coole would lean into a single microphone to sing three-part harmonies with mandolin player Andrew Collins and bassist John McNaughton, both of whom would occasionally step forward to take the lead. Collins blazed through riff after riff, adding an element of precision and energy to every song. McNaughton's hopping base lines held it all together, and his rendition of the classic "John Henry" was hard, fast, and definitely a crowd favorite.
Rounding out the group were Chris Quinn on banjo and John Showman on fiddle. Late in the set, the group split into pairs to perform a few songs in the guise of their side projects. Up until this point, Quinn's banjo playing drove many of the songs, but when he paired off with Coole for a duo, his artistry and poise truly came to the fore. The aptly-named, Showman's fiddle parts were remarkable for the crispness and clarity they maintained despite the high-flying nature of his solos.
As the evening wore on, the heat became almost unbearable and the audience was obviously growing lethargic and a bit restless. In the end, though, The FHB dug deep and reeled off one last song, the playful instrumental "To Suffer and Succotash," filling it full of spit and fire, and showing their true grit as performers in the process. The crowd responded in kind, and heartily thanked the band for playing an intense, soulful set under less-than-ideal conditions.
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