Mother Mother hit London Music Hall Saturday night for an SRO show with support from Toronto’s Monowhales. The BC band was currently nearing the end of their North American tour, with plans to spend the summer around Europe.
Mother Mother has been riding a huge wave in popularity thanks to the social media app TikTok and has been selling out venues all over North America and Europe on their current run. The Quadra Island, BC-based band has been around since 2005 and has a loyal fan base that has known how good these five musicians are since the beginning.
The band opened with "Seven" off of their most recent album *Inside* and then went right to the title song from their most popular album, *O My Heart*. The band sounded really tight and clean in what is one of the best venues for live music in South Western Ontario, London Music Hall. The band is known for its clever writing from frontman Ryan Guldemond and great vocal harmonies from the two women in the band, Molly Guldemond, sister of Ryan, and Jasmin Parkin. The 21-song set was a mix of new and old with plenty of tunes from early in their career.
Several times during the show Guldemond spoke to the crowd between songs, telling everyone that this was a safe space and that they could be themselves here. Mother Mother has really connected with the portion of their fan base who are struggling with where they fit in today’s society, and these fans really love what the band is saying. In turn, the band obviously really loves their fans just as much.
Mother Mother has really connected with the portion of their fan base who are struggling with where they fit in today’s society, and these fans really love what the band is saying.
The explosion on TikTok inspired the band to write a sequel to their hit song "Hayloft" for release on a special extended edition of their latest album *Inside* and the main set ended with the songs "Hayloft" and "Hayloft II". I don’t think there was a single person who wasn’t singing along to every word. It was a great finish to the main set and for an encore they played "Oh Ana" from their debut album, *Touch Up*, as well as "Burning Pile," another great song from *O My Heart*.
Mother Mother has played London a few times in the past, but I’m sure this has been their biggest show to date. Hopefully they’ll be back again soon and I think I speak for all their fans when I say, we love them.
The night got off to an exciting start with Monowhales performing. During their performance, it was learned that the band won Breakthrough Group of the Year at the 51st Juno Awards.
Monowhales frontwoman Sally Shaar was a ball of energy on stage during their 12-song set. Opening with "Take It Back" from their 2018 EP *Control Freak*, Shaar pumped up the mostly younger female crowd with her vivacious stage presence. "RWLYD (Really Wanna Let You Down)" from last year’s debut full-length album, *Daytona Beach*, got a big response from the eager fans. The song has well over one million plays on Spotify so far and touring with Mother Mother and winning a Juno is going to really give this band the boost they deserve.
