National Music Centre (NMC) is bringing Vancouver-based rock ‘n’ blues duo The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer back to the King Eddy stage as part of a double-header live concert and concert film screening event.
The pair will return to the legendary King Eddy on May 12 for a live performance. Then, on May 13 at Studio Bell, fans will get to see the electrifying concert film that was the culmination of the band’s three-night residency in 2019. A live Q&A with the band will follow the screening.
In 2019, The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer recorded a live-off-the-floor album at the Eddy using the adjacent Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, a marquee component of the National Music Centre recording collection. Germinating over three raucous nights, a rippin’ live album and concert film of all the unfolding magic would result. The live album would also garner the band a 2023 JUNO Award nod and 2023 Western Canadian Music Award win for Blues Artist of the Year.
“We’re so excited to bring our award-winning live album to the venue where it all started,” said Shawn Hall of The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer. “If you were part of the live audience in 2019, we hope you’ll join us to relive those magical nights and make some new live music memories.”
“When The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer came to Calgary in 2019, they were given a once-in-a-lifetime recording opportunity. And they did not disappoint – the result was utterly unforgettable,” said Andrew Mosker, NMC’s President and CEO. “Since then, other artists have followed suit with their own projects recorded in partnership with NMC and the King Eddy. The intention behind NMC’s ‘living collection’ of musical instruments and recording equipment is to provide artists with these rare recording opportunities, so we hope to see many more of these partnerships in the future.”
Over 15 years, The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer’s Shawn Hall and Matthew Rogers have been crafting their unique twist on the blues, earning a justified reputation as one of Canada’s most incendiary live propositions. And what better way to emphatically underline that reputation than to release of a live album? Live at the King Eddy bears ternary significance as a sizzling auditory document of a phenomenal live band, a much-needed salve for the soul, and a mouth-watering reminder of the ecstatic collective experiences we were briefly deprived of over the pandemic – the intense euphoria, emotional release, and human connection that only live music can deliver – and can now revel in once more. Together.
Carefully assembled from the most powerful performances at a storied music venue, Live at the King Eddy is no ordinary live album. For a band of their prominence and notoriety in the live arena, the recording had to be special, an event. And so it was, captured by none other than the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, which was used to record a breathtaking array of classic masterpieces. Those include four Led Zeppelin studio albums, three by Deep Purple, two by Fleetwood Mac, The Who (Who’s Next), Bob Marley & the Wailers (Live!), Santana, Dire Straits, Ten Years After, Iron Maiden, as well as Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street by the Stones themselves, and many more.
With Live at the King Eddy, the duo joined legendary company and a short list of Canadian bands to be recorded on the esteemed “Rolling truck Stones thing,” as Deep Purple affectionately termed it.
Now, audiences are invited to experience two nights of scorching blues-rock grooves from The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer, in concert and on screen.
Tickets for The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer performance on May 12 are $35 or $55 for admission and a copy of Live at the King Eddy on vinyl. Tickets are available at kingeddy.ca/whats-on. Tickets for the concert film screening and live Q&A with the band are $25, and can be purchased at studiobell.ca/whats-on.
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