Although the long weekend’s boasts of hot weather and clear skies had drawn a number of last-minute vacationers out to some lake or another, a considerable crowd still managed to manifest itself within the brick walls of the Power Plant. However, those left-behind Edmontonians looked as though they’d be tough to please: a large chunk of the audience had a bad case of flittering eyes, their minds silently wondering how they ended up on campus instead of somewhere involving sand. But that all changed when Red Shag Carpet took the stage...

One by one, the guys picked up their instruments and dove headfirst into tracks from their sophomore effort, Lift and Drop. Their alt-rock electricity and poppy soul flicked a switch in the audience; within a matter of seconds, the floor was being trampled and stomped on by those–both young and old–who couldn’t stop the music from tickling their dance nerves.

Guitarist Ted Ani’s scratchy voice floated from his lips, reaching out to the microphone like natural gas waiting to touch a flickering spark. Matti Darrah was supposed to play in a kiddie pool onstage (they had claimed this in an e-mail), but unfortunately, he didn’t. No worries, though: Darrah’s keyboard became his playground instead, and he splashed fresh jolts of energy anywhere and everywhere possible. Similarly, Allan Pickard couldn’t restrain himself from using one set of cymbals as drumsticks, and bassist Dan Yarmon was so mesmerized by the music that a kick in the groin by the leaping Ani probably wouldn’t have made him falter.

Indeed, watching Red Shag Carpet was like believing you were on a plane to Yellowknife, but later finding yourself landing in Tahiti. The Shag kicked off their cross-Canada tour punching out their tunes with such incredible force that I’m sure we’ll be hearing them all the way from Halifax.