The Pack A.D. rustle up Calgary on the Woke Up Weird tour

By Thomas Johnson, September 7 2018 —

Vancouver power-rock duo The Pack A.D. stomped through Calgary the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 5 in support of their latest album, Dollhouse. Guitarist and lead-vocalist Becky Black and drummer and backup vocalist Maya Miller took to a star-spangled, day-glo stage at Commonwealth Bar & Stage, raucously generating more sound than two people have any business being responsible for.

The low-end of Black’s guitar — which would finally hit the audience a full beat after her strums — was so reverb-heavy that the space it filled more than compensated for a lack of proper bass guitar. Miller’s drums, which sported the same effects, filled whatever rhythm section remained. It thrashed.

The way the two employed heavy effects on both instruments was more than enough to accommodate for that of a full band. Black’s guitar was saturated in the best way — there was so much fuzz and echo packed into each string that to have even attempted to squeeze another melody-driver would have been redundant. And it must be said that Miller has to have some of the strongest shoulders on the planet for all the might with which she whacked her drums.

Despite a relatively meagre turnout, Black and Miller kept the crowd entertained, bringing their set to a close with a bit of nostalgia firmly in their wheelhouse — a cover of Weezer’s “Buddy Holly” — before returning to the stage for a requisite encore.

The Pack A.D. have spent more than a decade trekking across Canada sharing their two-woman brand of arena-ready rock, and their experience was evident in how comfortable they felt on stage.

The band will continue their tour through Eastern Canada before embarking on an American stretch in October.