Elevado Helps Revelry Elevate The Live Music Experience
October 14, 2023 - by Miles Overn
After having attended close to two dozen café sets at Kelowna’s newest live music venue, we were eagerly anticipating their first evening show with a touring artist. For Revelry that artist of choice was American singer/songwriter duo Elevado.
Originally slated to fill that role a couple months earlier, the horrific Kelowna wildfires laid waste to those plans and put everything and everybody on hold. Fast forward to now and the venue is finished and Elevado are back in town.
This duo expressed genuine gratitude at being the first featured act at this incredibly funky and totally modern new performance space in the heart of the Kelowna Cultural District. But enough of all that, let’s talk about the show.
After a strong opening set by local artist Sean Waters Band, Brad Rhodes and Brent Shuttleworth made their way onto the Revelry stage and began what would become a very satisfying night of live music entertainment. It almost feels odd
describing a concert or show that way as much of the current culture around live music is about the hang or the holler or the hook-up. While all that may be a legitimate way to spend a night out for some, for many others those things serve as a deterrent for trying to enjoy live music.
Elevado made their way through a strong set of songs and delivered them with deep but understated musicianship and musicality. Both the vocal capabilities and instrumental chops (think super tasty acoustic guitar lead lines and solid rhythms)
were there to support the songs and the stories that they told. Casual in presentation but powerful in performance, Rhodes and Shuttleworth kept the audience engaged and attentive throughout the night. Crowd members sported smiles that suggested
contentment along with enjoyment. There was a real sense of a collective “being in the moment” together that tends to linger well past the end of the show on those rare occasions when it does happen.
For this reviewer the realization of the full extent of just how good this night was happened as I crawled into bed and started reflecting on the whole experience. It hit me that at no point during the Elevado show at Revelry, or
even Sean Waters Band set, did I find myself thinking “Man, I wish people would just be quiet so I could listen to the band.”
Bravo Elevado! Bravo Revelry! Here's hoping for many equally enjoyable encores.