Setlist Blended Together, On the Low Rung, The Wave, Waiting for Fred, F-12, Four Turtles, The First Show, High School
Review Call it stage fright, call it hubris, call it bad luck. This was a bad show.
The band attempted to put together a show without the help of any of The Big Three. Unsurprisingly the show was a disaster, tying for the second worst show of all time. The only highlight was High School, but even it was played below its expected average.
Show rating: 44/100
Details Date: 29th April, 2020 Concert id: 2020-04-29
Setlist A9 [1], Patrick Swayze, Celsius, Top, F-12, Blue Orange, Pixilxil, Reload, High School, Ticket
[1] Debut
Review This show found the band discovering a “new floor” in their ratings. Nearly every song was red, yet the overall score was still pretty good at 62/100.
The Big Three makes an appearance, alongside a solid debut of A9 and a generous sampling of new songs. Buzz online started to really kick up around this time. Was the band going to keep relying on the same Big Three lineup to carry every show, or would they make an attempt to be more adventurous?
Show rating: 62/100
Details Date: 4th May, 2020 Concert id: 2020-05-04
Setlist Four Turtles, Ticket, Needle, Don’t Let the Air Out of My Tires, Sure, Midst, A9, Patrick Swayze, Little Bones, Blue Orange
Review You win some, you lose some. The band has friends in Regina and wanted to put on a great show, but it wasn’t to be. Despite a 50/50 split between red and blue songs, the song selection doomed the show to a disappointing 56/100 score. It didn’t help that they played Needle, the worst song in the entire catalog, which recorded a terrible 14/100.
On the positive side, the newer songs Patrick Swayze and Midst stood out with real potential. Both songs were written by the bassist, which raised a few eyebrows amongst the others in the band.
Show rating: 56/100
Details Date: 5th May, 2020 Concert id: 2020-05-05
Setlist Blue Orange, Patrick Swayze, Guyute, Waiting for Fred, Ticket, F-12, Pixilxil, High School, Reload
Review Yet another solid Canadian show. Interestingly enough, the show started with Blue Orange and ended with Reload, and they both recorded the same astonishing 91/100 score. Ticket made an appearance in the middle of the set, completing a Big Three spotting.
The fanthers circulating live footage of these shows continued to split into two camps. Some thought it was great to hear The Big Three so frequently, others thought the band was being too lazy to rely so heavily on them.
If the band knew about the controversy, they weren’t showing it. “On to the next show!” became their unofficial mantra through this trek. The Canada leg was turning into something special, and they wanted to keep it up without thinking too hard about it.
Show rating 65/100
Details Date: 6th May, 2020 Concert id: 2020-05-06
Setlist Little Bones[1] , Midst, High School, Pixilxil, Sure, Ticket, Reload, Blue Orange
[1] Debut
Review
The band had supporting help for this show from The Plodes and Bad Hoo. All three bands ended up hanging out backstage where EP learned how to play Little Bones by The Tragically Hip. They figured it out well enough to debut the concert with it, or so they thought. It went ok, but not as well as they were hoping for.
The crowd was mostly there to see Bad Hoo, so the audience reaction was mostly muted. However, the energy changed drastically when the band decided to play The Big Three to close out the night. Reload came first, and was ok. But next came what fanthers have come to call “Victoria Ticket,” an almost-flawless performance that went down as the best song they had ever played.
In the end, Victoria ended up scoring as the third best show in EP’s entire concert chronology. But it was the performance of Ticket that became an instant classic, as buzz in Canada began to get louder. Afterwards, Bad Hoo invited Enthusiastic Panther to play with them in Calgary. EP agreed, and it was a good thing they did!
Show rating: 62/100
Details Date: 30th April, 2020 Concert id: 2020-04-30
Setlist What a Wonderful World[1], Blue Orange, Top, Patrick Swayze, Celsius, Ticket, Lilliput, Reload, Don’t Let the Air Out of My Tires
[1] Debut
Review The best show EP had ever played, for a lot of reasons.
First off, every song over-performed. Most concerts have a blend of songs performed worse than their average (“red songs”) and songs performed better (“blue songs”). On this evening, every single song came up blue.
Then, Blue Orange scored 98/100, breaking the record set the night before and registering almost a perfect score. Then Ticket did almost as well with a 97/100 score. And if that weren’t enough, Reload’s 93/100 meant that 3 of the best 4 performances of all time were in a single concert.
Interestingly enough, Enthusiastic Panther didn’t even headline this show! This was actually a Bad Hoo show, with EP just doing their best to warm up the crowd. No one was more surprised about the great performance than Enthusiastic Panther themselves!
“We should always be an opening act,” the drummer joked. He might not have been joking.
Show rating: 72/100
Details Date: 2nd May, 2020 Concert id: 2020-05-02
Setlist Another Brick in the Wall[1], Midst, The First Show, Sure, High School, Patrick Swayze, Blue Orange, Reload, Little Bones
[1] Debut; Pink Floyd cover
Review The band found a new gear in Canada. This show started with a cover of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall. It was a bit of a miss, but Blue Orange blew everyone away with a 94/100 performance, and it was an overall solid show.
Show rating: 63/100
Details Date: 2nd May, 2020 Concert id: 2020-05-02
Our 27th Song[1], Ticket, Blue Orange, Midst, Sure, Top, Little Bones, Patrick Swayze, Reload
[1] Debut
Review A few notable things about this show. Our 27th Song debuted, then there was a red streak of three, and a blue streak of five. The Big Three made an appearance, and the show was good overall.
It also kicked off the first recording of the “SLF score” which stands for “Setlist Freshness.” This score describes how old or new the songs are. A score above 75% would mean the show is mostly new songs (as in Missoula) and a score below 25% would mean it’s mostly older songs. This show scored a 49, right in the middle. Song oldies, some new songs.
Show rating 65/100 Setlist freshness: 49/100
Details Date: 7th May, 2020 Concert id: 2020-05-07
Setlist F-12, Pixilxil, A9, Our 27th Song, Celsius, Patrick Swayze, The First Show, Top, Sure, Reload
Review A notable show because only Reload made an appearance out of the entire Big Three. Celsius was a standout with a 71% score, its all time highest score. But wasn’t enough to save what ended up being a pretty mediocre show.
Show rating 55/100 Setlist freshness: 54/100
Details Date: 9th May, 2020 Concert id: 2020-05-09
Setlist Blue Orange, A9, Celsius, Midst, High School, Our 27th Song, Four Turtles, Patrick Swayze, Ticket, The Wave
Review No performance of Reload, but the other two songs that comprise The Big Three bookended the show. Blue Orange brought the house down with a 78/100, and the last song of the night broke records by hitting 100/100. It was the perfect performance.
But not content to leave on a high note, the band plunged into their most polarising song, The Wave. It scored a mere 29/100, stealing the chance for the band to leave on the highest possible note.
Also of note: the gap score for The Wave was 9, which is quite high for any song, let alone a song that has a whole fandom dedicated to it.
Show rating 63/100
Details Date: 10th May, 2020 Concert id: 2020-05-10
