Last month I discovered that every bar, pub and concert hall in town is hosting live music on Halloween night, so I set out to pick one. I wanted something good, something fun, and something local. It turns out that in Edmonton, good and local is no problem; but “fun” is synonymous with “death metal”. After snooping around on MySpace for about five minutes I realized that I was going to spend Saturday night with a pounding headache.

This is not to say that our local metal is necessarily without talent. ‘No Heat Tomorrow’ stood out from the other contenders in my search, with a tight sound,  catchy and energetic guitar riffs, and seasonally-appropriate vocals (i.e. gruff and just a little gruesome). I thought about sucking it up, packing some aspirin and going to their “Battle of the Cover Bands”-type concert at the Pawnshop tonight. But I’m a traditional kind of girl, and I like my rock ‘n roll.

Dangerous Guise, a six-piece band who has been playing locally for the last fifteen years, was an exciting find. They have an impressive set list of cover songs, from the Stones to Aretha Franklin to Stevie Ray Vaughn. The audio files that I sampled were a taste of a solidly musical group, clearly used to playing together and enjoying it. They are rocking, rolling, and just a little R&B – this last thanks to Dangerous Gary, who “taught the Dangerous Guise that there was such a thing as soul”. Their instrumentation is typical for a rock band plus the multi-faceted Dangerous Freddy, who doubles on sax and harmonica.

My impression so far is that they are dedicated to playing great music and making sure the audience has a good time. Sounds like fun to me! I’m going to check them out tonight at the Beer Hunter Pub in St Albert, and get a  pre-concert interview. Here’s hoping that I can give them a dazzling review…

Audio files can be found on their website, http://dangerousguise.com/dangerous_music.htm