CMW Critical Conclusions for: Adam Hanney & Co.
It is year 4 of PHM at CMW. Thanks to special contributor Kristina B for her review below.
All the way from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Adam Hanney – Electric Guitar, Jordan Cayer – Bass Guitar, Keys, Samples, and Mike Dunn – Drums, Samples make up Adam Hanney & Co. I thought I’d never heard of a band from Winnipeg before but upon a Wikipedia search I realized Crash Test Dummies, The Watchmen and The Guess Who all come from Winnipeg so I guess Adam Hanney & Co. are actually in good company. Go Winnipeg! (Editor’s note: Kristina does not speak to my knowledge of Winnipeg bands. That being said, forgot about the Watchmen!)
Venue: Cameron House (Back Room). I was wrong before – the Cameron does not look bigger with more people packed in. Mu judgement was clearly impaired last year. Needless to say, more people came out for Adam Hanney & Co.
First Impressions: My first impression was that these guys seem really young (Google later confirmed this is correct – they’re in their early 20s) but they sound like they’ve been playing together forever. You can really hear their influences (Arctic Monkeys, Bombay Bicycle Club, Radiohead, Ryan Adams, Tokyo Police Club, We Are The City) but they’ve definitely developed their own unique sound.
Stage Presence: Adam Hanney & Co. have a great stage presence and are pretty interesting to watch. They really get into their music and you can tell they have passion, which is lacking a lot these days.
Crowd Reaction: The crowd was really into the music. No outrageous dancing (still too early for outrageous dancing) but there was some serious swaying and head bopping going on.
Random Observation: There was a drunk older lady standing near me who really REALLY doesn’t want Trump from President (although who does?) and was deeply offended that the young guys she was talking to (who were from somewhere in the U.S.) called the Cameron House a venue. It’s an ESTABLISHMENT with history damn it!
Last Word: Adam Hanney has a very powerful voice and the band play really well together. They put out their first full length album “12/12” in March and this was the first time the band had taken their new album outside of Winnipeg. They also made it into the Regional Finals for Manitoba for this year’s CBC Searchlight so it would seem 2016 has been a good year for this band thus far. They did an awesome cover of Radiohead’s “You’re All I Need” which was a definite crowd pleaser. Overall I’d say Adam Hanney and Co. are a band to watch. Rating: 7/10.
