Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Lopstock III Coverage (Part 2!!)

Let us resume our coverage of what went down at Lopstock III at LopLops Lounge on July 29th in today's post, courtesy of SooToday's complete multi-camera live-stream of the 8+ hour "bohemian conclave" in action! For general information and details on that day's first two acts, click here. We pick things back up at the 1:15:00 mark for promoter/MC Brendan Garlick introducing the next act, and revealing that unsold copies of his old post punk band Gnaeus' only CD "Meditations" were given out to anyone who bought something from the merchandise table. Nice deal, and a tie-in to Lopstocks of old in that respect! Tying in with the next act (and first band of the evening), Brendan noted that Gnaeus were invited to play in ex-Caroline Divine frontman Anthony Marcello's basement in their first ever live performance back in the day, and Anthony was next up at Lopstock with his current pop rock band Jupiter Marvelous.

While Jupiter Marvelous are not as hard rock-focused as Caroline Divine were, their lineup does have more familiar faces, including Shane Storozuk (ex-Aldous/Vol.) on guitar, Jacob Quarrell (Mike Haggith's solo band/ex-Bad Chug) on bass, and a drummer named Ben who I can't 100% identify off hand. Their set featured this unintroduced original song, "It's Me", two songs from their upcoming album (linked here and here), "Tin Foil Hat", "Cherry Girl" (complete with audience participation), a cover of John Mayer's "I Don't Trust Myself", another unintroduced original, "It's You", and one more new song. Yes, this was a noticeably longer set than those that preceded it, proper bands had an hour or so to play/set up while the three solo performers were blocked for 30-40 minutes each. Nothing too heavy here from Jupiter Marvelous, but they had a nice easy-going rapport and melodies, and Jacob added some levity throughout!

Notably, Anthony's singing voice was very Mike Haggith-esque at points here, so fans of his may want to take an extra look. Good set for pop rock fans, so give it a look in the video embedded below or via the song names linked above! After SooToday covered up the teardown of Jupiter Marvelous' setup and the next act coming on with the Lopstock card from the beginning of the video (not sure why), Brendan introduces folk/indie musician Juliana Regan, who was joined by ex-Generations guitarist Brandon Ruch for her set (no Blair St. John here, but he would perform later that night). Juliana teased that she and Brandon are working on original studio material at the Algoma Conservatory of Music, though whether they are doing so jointly or separately wasn't 100% clear. Her set included this unintroduced original song, a cover of Foster The People's "Pumped Up Kicks" (with Brandon sharing lead vocals), "Peter Pan Blues",...

..."Lid Off A Daffodil", and an unintroduced-by-name song inspired by recent forest fires. This was the shortest set of Lopstock III, but Juliana has a strong and smooth voice, paired well with mature, often woeful lyrics, and while she and Brandon had only first played together a week before this set, they had a good chemistry! The two of them sitting down for the performance also helped things stand out from the acts arround them. This concludes the first 31% or so of our Lopstock III coverage (the joys of an 8+ hour livestream!), and so far so good for the livestream quality on SooToday's end, but we will address the two middle acts from this marathon concert in a post likely hitting the SMS over the weekend. Give all of Toystock III a watch below, with Jupiter Marvelous and Juliana Regan blocked from 1:15:00-2:39:00, and look for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!


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