Sonreal ‘No Warm Up’ Tour
Feb 3rd/17
Commodore Ballroom
Vancouver, BC
Photos: Taylor Friginette
Words: David Dalley
Friday night SonReal played the 4th date of his No Warm Up Tour to an energetic Commodore Ballroom, placing him amongst a small group of local rappers that have headlined there. The stage was constructed to look like the house their camp has operated out of for years on the Eastside of Vancouver. Over a thousand people showed up to cheer on the Vernon native that has called Vancouver his home for the last ten.
Rich-A ended his warm-up set with ‘All the Small Things’ by Blink 182 before the band comprised of drummer Cola from Toronto group OBGM & guitarist Joey Resly joined him on the stage. SonReal entered sporting a fringe leather jacket to his 2016 track ‘Soho’. He hit next with ‘Whoa Nilly’ singing “For my city, time we get it loud, gotta make my mama proud” before stopping to let everyone know ‘This shit is fucked up to me.’ He reminisced on experiences early in his career playing the Media Club, Anza Club & other coffee shops in Vancouver. He noted “In 2013 I was still working construction”.
He played ‘Everywhere We Go’ and donned his new best friend, an acoustic guitar, for a rendition of ‘Try’ before calling his family to the stage to come and take in the moment with him.
His catalogue transcended well with the live band and sounded great on the system at the Commodore. He played, ‘For the Town’, ‘No Warm Up’ and when he dropped ‘Can I get a Witness’ the crowd erupted and sang along to every word. Guitarist Joe Resly laid a dirty wah-riff on the intro of a cut titled ‘Repo Man’ from the upcoming album. The song was cut short to instruct the audience to respond by screaming “Shut the Fuck Up” on the chorus which the audience eagerly and drunkenly obliged.
Next up was an acoustic number which he followed up telling the crowd he first picked up a guitar a year & a half ago and that it was ‘scary as fuck’ to play & sing that song.’Today was the best day of my whole fucking life’ he repeated several times throughout the night before leaving the stage. The fans chanted for an encore and he delivered with a solo acoustic number and ended it by running back ‘Can I get a Witness’ again to the delight of the crowd.
In early 2011, I was with him at Fortune before he went on at the ‘Where’s Waldo’ release party. I recall him doubting his singing, asking how it sounded on the new record and if he should just stick to rapping. I was obviously supportive in my reply. He had a distinct voice & great melodies, but he wasn’t hitting the high notes like he currently is on songs like ‘No Warm Up’. As a rapper he was already great, but his singing wasn’t what it is today. After the show at Fortune I remember his manager Byron telling me the Commodore was next. Since then, I had watched them open for Method Man & Classified at the Commodore and Byron assured me each time they would be headlining a show there. They did it with style on Friday Night to a sold out crowd. Congrats to their whole team!
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