{"id":5676,"date":"2012-11-01T10:54:31","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T16:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=5676"},"modified":"2012-11-01T10:54:31","modified_gmt":"2012-11-01T16:54:31","slug":"rural-alberta-advantage-look-to-exploit-opening-for-dan-mangan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2012\/11\/01\/rural-alberta-advantage-look-to-exploit-opening-for-dan-mangan\/","title":{"rendered":"Rural Alberta Advantage look to exploit opening for Dan Mangan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nby Michael Elves<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Nils Edenloff and the rest of Rural Alberta Advantage take to the stage of the Burton Cummings Theatre on Thursday November 1, 2012 don\u2019t expect a set list composed of the heavy-hitters from their first two records, Hometowns <\/em>and Departing<\/em>. Instead \u2013 as Edenloff revealed in an interview with Stylus<\/em> \u2013 the members of RAA will take advantage of a prime spot opening for indie-darling Dan Mangan to try out some new material on an unsuspecting audience in advance of recording their third album.
\n\u201cDefinitely what our goal is with this next tour is to try to be playing some of the new songs because I feel like that\u2019s sort of the best test for us as to whether a song is working or not \u2013 actually playing it live in front of people, sort of like this \u2018test by fire,\u2019\u201d Edenloff laughingly noted of a practice the band is no stranger to: \u201cIt\u2019s the way we worked on the last two records \u2013 trying our best to road tour new songs \u2013 and that\u2019s our goal with this. Once we get back we\u2019ll assess where we are with the new songs that we\u2019ve been touring, hopefully try to get those done and keep on with that process.\u201d
\nWhen the question is put to him as to whether the main test is with the audience reaction to new material or to gauging how well a song works within the band, Edenloff hedged by noting that \u201c[i]t\u2019s definitely a mix of both,\u201d before he explained further: \u201c[S]ometimes you can get wrapped up in that sort of headspace and be like \u2018oh man, this is gonna be amazing, there\u2019s gonna be a twenty-minute solo, everyone\u2019s gonna love it\u2019 and then you play it and \u2018oh man that\u2019s just not working for me.\u2019 You can really gauge whether or not something is grabbing someone from the gate in terms of new songs or whether it\u2019s \u2018yeah y\u2019know maybe we need to make a couple changes here so it\u2019s more engaging for the audience.\u201d
\nEdenloff does view the tour with Mangan as a great opportunity for a \u2018tabula rasa\u2019 type crowd who are relatively free of expectations from the opener allowing the band greater latitude to experiment with the set-list than they would have if the bill had \u201cRural Alberta Advantage\u201d at the top. \u201c[Opening] is one of those things where it is definitely about finding that balance because you don\u2019t want to completely lose people but it\u2019s a matter of switching it up and finding the right pacing.\u201d
\nOpening for Mangan is not without its challenges, as Edenloff noted that \u201c[t]hese are also going to be in a different sort of environment for us \u2013 all the dates across Canada are sort-of theatres so it\u2019s definitely going to be a learning process in trying to work out the pacing, because you know we\u2019re used to doing well over an hour when we\u2019re headlining and we have the pacing figured out for our sets, we know what works and what doesn\u2019t work so it\u2019s a matter of finding those right sorts of things \u2013 you\u2019re giving and taking as much as you can.\u201d
\nThe trio of musicians in Rural Alberta Advantage (Edenloff on lead vocals and guitar, Amy Cole on backing vocals and keyboard, and Paul Banwatt on drums) are ultimately all open enough as musicians and performers to read the cues audiences give them and make changes as need arises. \u201cDefinitely after running songs a couple times you can tell \u2018yeah that\u2019s not a good transition from that song to that song\u2019 and those are things you end up working out on the road \u2013 figuring out with the new songs: what are their strengths?\u2019\u201d Edenloff revealed, before adding that he approaches songwriting with a similar \u201crear-view mirror\u201d approach:
\n\u201cI never tend to bog myself down on \u2018what am I trying to say about this?\u2019 It\u2019s more after; once you\u2019re all said and done you sort of realize \u2018this is the things I was going through and this is how they all link together.\u2019 At the end of the day we\u2019re writing music that is personal and moving to us so it\u2019s not like trying to craft a record full of hits or something \u2013 not \u2018no, this is only going to be a massive song\u2019 and only focusing on singles or something. I believe that we\u2019re always trying to focus on \u2018how does this fit in with the larger body of work that we\u2019re doing?\u2019 and it\u2019s looking back at it after to see how it ties in.\u201d
\nWe\u2019ll have to wait and see how the forthcoming record ties into the RAA songbook, but Winnipeg audiences will get a sneak preview and a chance to influence what makes the cut when the band takes to the stage on November 1st.<\/p>\n

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\nRural Alberta Advantage opens for Dan Mangan on Thursday November 1, 2012 at the Burton Cummings Theatre. Tickets are available now at all Ticketmaster locations for $30 + service fees. For more information on Rural Alberta Advantage, visit <\/em>www.theraa.com<\/em><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Michael Elves When Nils Edenloff and the rest of Rural Alberta Advantage take to the stage of the Burton Cummings Theatre on Thursday November 1, 2012 don\u2019t expect a set list composed of the heavy-hitters from their first two records, Hometowns and Departing. Instead \u2013 as Edenloff revealed in an interview with Stylus \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[161,228,453,827],"class_list":["post-5676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-canadian","tag-dan-mangan","tag-indie","tag-rural-alberta-advantage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}