On Friday October 28 The Blackwell Room at the Plaza hotel hosted the album release party for locals Mother Sun. The show included two bands from the Lower Mainland. Like many newer bands, most defy being labeled with a single genre and that can be said of all three bands that played this night. Dead Plant, from Vancouver, opened the show. This band includes some members of the now defunct band Wrecked Beach, including Blake Greer and Joshua Kuliasa.

They played mostly up tempo rock with plenty of punk elements. Dead Plant included tunes from the Wrecked Beach catalogue, such as “Fade,” in their set. They really got the party started and the dance floor filling up with many revelers decked out in their Halloween costumes.

Next up was Doohickey Cubicle. Also, from Vancouver, this group is known for playing synth pop with dancey beats. At this point the dance floor overflowed and the party continued.

They had a wonderful, costumed stage show highlighted by the keyboard/vocalist, mostly hidden, in what appeared to be an eight foot tall person.

The talented Lower Mainlanders received plenty of applause from the large group of fans that attended the show.

The headliners, Mother Sun, closed the show. As it was their album release party for “Train of Thought,” so they mostly played tracks from it. Now, the dance floor swelled and the local crowd showed their love for Mother Sun.

These local favourites consist of Jared Doherty guitar and vocals, Emilio Pagnotta, guitar and vocals, Alex Ward, bass and keyboards, and Jared Wilman on drums and vocals.

Throughout the evening the band was augmented at various times by Aaron MacInnis on guitar, Stefan Thordarson on violin, Kris Ruston on saxophone, and Mark Fagg on percussion. Mark also did a great job on the sound for the evening.

To quote Mother Sun, “this album is an overstimulated daytrip through a distracted mind, a soundtrack to a series of observations and floating possibilities fighting for oxygen in your brain.” It certainly was a trip of sorts and these psych-rock favourites on the British Columbia music scene rocked-out to the delight of their fans. They playfully dressed in mechanic overalls and quipped that they had bought a tire shop. They ended the show with “Daylight” a favourite track from 2019. This was a very successful album release party for Mother Sun in Kamloops, BC.