Wil and Sean Verrault @ UBC Pitt Pub

Thursday night I went to go see Wil co-headline a show with Sean Verrault (of Wide Mouth Mason) at the UBC Pitt Pub. I was excited to see Wil again, he is such a fantastic guitarist. I wasn’t too sure on Sean Verrault before the show, I am not a huge WMM fan however I had heard that Sean was a pretty amazing blues/jazz guitarist.

The show opened with a two piece band that I never got the name for. Lead singer played an bass guitar that had an offset sound hole. It was a bit odd looking, like he had a beer holder in his guitar. Anyway they were a pretty forgettable duo, as their vocals were inaudible and their songs sounded like they could be on an American Pie soundtrack.

After this duo Wil took the stage and opened the show with 15 Years on an electric guitar (something that is a bit unusual to see from Wil). After 15 Years, much like his Grouse Mountain show, Wil started taking requests from the crowd. Sweet Rebbecca (as usual) was requested, so Wil strapped on his acoustic and jumped right into it. Sweet Rebbecca is probably one of my favorite Wil songs live so I was pretty happy to hear it again. Wil continued the show like this taking requests from the crowd in between playing a few songs of his choosing. Last song of his set (which I called!) was Honey Pie, along with Sweet Rebbecca another one of my favorite Wil songs.

Wil’s set lasted about 50 minutes, after which Sean took the stage. Again I wasn’t too sure on what to expect from Sean. Sean opened the show with some amazing guitar kicks, and kept it going for his full set. I was fully impressed by his skills. This guy has some of the most nimble fingers I have seen someone have on guitar and the speed he has. Really wild stuff, I was fully impressed. His singing was ok too, however he really has a thing for hitting the high notes, and hold them, which at times was a bit tough on the ears. Like Wil he is the type of singer who gives it their all on stage, so hats off to Sean. He also did this cool thing where he would record his guitar chorus, then play it back, when he played it back he would then rip in to some major solos, pretty rad.

After Sean’s set they took a little break and said they would come back and do a few songs together. We took this opportunity to move closer to the stage as a bunch of people had left. They came out on stage and opened the duet set with Wil’s Both Hands. Sean breaking out the solos while Wil sang his heart out. After Both Hands they broke into a Wide Mouth Mason song called Ease Your Mind. After that they then broke into a cover of Little Wing. I have heard Wil cover this before, but this time with Sean on guitar as well it was truly awesome. They then played one more WMM song which I can’t remember the name of and finally ended the show playing Wil’s song Mama. The reasoning they played a Wil song (as he explained) was that Sean could follow anything he played on guitar, while Wil could follow nothing Sean played!

Anyway all in all a wonderful night of two extremely talented guitar/vocalists. Sean really impressed me with his guitar skills, and Wil as always was excellent.