Blacktop Mojo during their set at The Canal Club (Photo by Erik Haugen)
Walking into The Canal Club after two years away felt like coming home. I had a greater appreciation of the venue and a brand-new perspective. The neon guitar and music note lights shone just a little brighter above the bar, and the drinks went down a tad smoother than I remembered. Even the parking options, sketchy though they were, held fond memories of maneuvering my car into the lot with my newly acquired license and a friend in the passenger seat. The Canal Club is still no frills and no fuss. The focus is on the music, and every band that plays there should understand. But everyone has an off night. Tuesday night was it for several bands.
Opening act Mostly Outta Line hasn’t had a lot of experience playing professionally, and it showed with their underwhelming performance. The next band, The Emma Garell Band, picked things up a bit. The lead guitarist played killer riffs and carried most of their set, while the lead singer struggled to hit the higher notes of some songs. Finally, Loxias brought the most charisma to the stage out of the openers, but it dwindled over time. Songs like “Hard to Handle” and “Into the Sunset” got the crowd dancing, while “Monster” and “Dreamin’” were a good sendoff, but their set lost momentum with the extended banter between songs.
Later, at about 9 p.m. with a smaller crowd than the night had begun with, Blacktop Mojo took the stage. An indie rock band from Texas, the band relies on on crowdfunding to support their musical projects.
Die-hard fans with T-shirts featuring the band's logo and regular patrons gravitated toward the stage to see the headliner, but the curiosity and interest didn’t last long. By the middle of their set, most of the regular patrons had left, leaving only Mojo Nation and a small crowd in the back.
During their set, the band left the stage four times, leaving the club employees working the lights confused as to whether they were coming or going.
For the actual finale, Blacktop Mojo played a cover of ZZ Top’s “Tush,” garnering more applause than their last few songs combined. By the end, over half the crowd had left the venue, perhaps due to the excessive amount of breaks the band took. When I walked out the door, desperate for Tylenol and a good night’s sleep, I could still hear the fans chanting “Mojo!” from the street until I reached my car.
Sunday night’s show with Adelitas Way, on the other hand, wasn’t a disappointment. Adelitas Way is a hard rock band with the kind of sound I’d been craving to hear live since the isolation of 2020 began. But first, there were the openers.
After a lukewarm set by a local band, Magg Dylan, an alternative metal band from Virginia Beach took the stage. “Scarz,” one of their first songs, focused on the effects of bullying, while “Pawns” focused on addiction and the journey of sobriety. The next band, Dividing Face, got the crowd up and moving with their song “Get Up.”
While the next band was the last opening act, it may have been the main event. If there had been an award for charisma and stage presence given that night, Seven Year Witch would have won it. Starting off with the songs “Best of the Best” and “White Horses,” the lead singer’s energy was contagious and tangible as he danced across the stage and through the audience, giving high fives as he went. His cover of Akon’s “I Wanna F--- You,” dedicated to his mother, of all people, made the crowd laugh and sing along. The most surprising part of the performance occurred when the lead singer did two backflips on stage and barely broke a sweat during their last song “Rags to Riches.”
Next, Adelitas Way, formed in Las Vegas in 2006, took the stage by storm with “Still Hungry” and “Ready for War (Pray for Peace).” It was the closest the crowd had gotten to moshing all night, with the fans screaming the lyrics and jumping up and down under the multicolored lights. The reds, blues, yellows and greens bathed the stage and the crowd in a rainbow collage that stretched across the room. About midway through their set, the band slowed things down with “Somebody Wishes They Were You” and “Alive,” songs about finding peace and love, respectively. Their final songs toward the end of their set, “Criticize” and “Notorious,” got the crowd jumping again before the finale.
While I didn’t know what to expect of The Canal Club in the pandemic era, I was pleasantly surprised. The best parts haven’t changed. Leave your worries and troubles behind, and what little of the outside world remains when the music starts, the acoustics might blast right out of you.
