The line stretches around a mahogany brick building along a cobblestone street. A man with salt and pepper hair walks out a door along the line and exclaims in a playful tone “Oh wow! People actually showed up”

That person was Chris Murphy, Sloan’s bassist. Murphy is ‘famous’ for milling about before and after shows, meeting and chatting people up. For myself, it was the first time seeing the Toronto-based Rock quartet. Sloan is known for their fantastic shows here in Buffalo and I had to experience one of my favorite bands in person.

The venue packed quickly, filling Iron Works in ten minutes. They kicked off their first set, igniting the audience with their energetic, smooth sound. Sloan has released thirteen albums, and each performance feels as fresh as their older albums sound.

Sloan exhibited a certain level of musical prowess throughout the show. Audience interest. As each minute passed, the space around you shrunk. More and more people were trying to get closer and create more room for themselves to dance. Even as their first set ended, the concentration of people was maintained (with some migration back and forth from the bar).

Sloan carried that power into their second set, playing many of their classics including “People of the Sky” and “Everything You’ve Done Wrong”.

I truly had an outstanding time on Friday Night at @buffaloironworks, finally getting to see the legendary “Up North” band perform! The band blew my expectations out of the water, performing most of their new album, “Steady”.

The merch section that Sloan had was mind-blowing. With a table full of CDS and stickers, T-shirts and vinyl records of most of their albums decorating the wall. I ended up nabbing myself a t-shirt of their sophomore album, “Twice Removed”. I also got myself “12”, their 2018 release, which was one I had yet to find!