Twenty years ago, Paper Bag Records released their first album, Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It in People. Since then they've worked with countless bands, including (but not limited to) Stars, controller.controller, Tokyo Police Club, You Say Party, Sam Roberts, The Dears, Frankiie, Gold & Youth, and Frog Eyes. And last Friday, the latter three took to the Rickshaw Theatre for the Vancouver chapter of the PBR20 celebration, a weekend of live shows in venues across the country, and livestreamed to the world.

The first band up was Frankiie, who were down a member thanks to our "good friend movid". But the remaining three picked up the slack for a fun set of their dream-rock sound. And despite being a little short, the band was clearly having a good time on stage, joking around with the audience between tunes.
Songs like the crunchy "Easy Breezy (Je Sais)" and the witchy “Funny Feeling" — which closed out their set — were easy standouts, for the band’s set that seemed to go by too quickly.
I had been meaning to catch Frankiie live for a while now (well, I mean, even before our good friend movid) and hopefully it won’t be too long before their next ‘full strength’ show!

Next up the stage filled with smoke and blue lights as Gold & Youth launched into the Nick-Cave-ish "Empire State of Mind" from their latest album Dream Baby. The song started soft and built to a crescendo that set the tone for their time. The voices of Matthew Lyall and Louise Burns intertwined together very well on songs like "The Worse The Better", with Burns even taking center stage for "Ruins". Other highlights included the brooding rhythm of "Maudlin Days (Robocop)" and the finish of the set, an almost-spoken-word "90s Night".
However, I don't think it's a secret that the Rickshaw is... not my favourite venue in the city, and sometimes the room does no favours to bands, especially ones as rich & dense as Gold & Youth can be.

And finally, closing out the night was the reunited Frog Eyes. Their first show since 2018, Carey Mercer, Melanie Campbell, and Shyla Seller were joined by the illustrious Paul Rigby for a set mostly focusing on their upcoming album The Bees.
The album isn't out until next month, but songs like "Scottish Wine" and "Speck of Dust" caught my ear immediately, having the familiar sounds of Mercer's voice chaotically wailing through the room, and the frantic intensity as you would expect from the band.
Aside from the preview of new songs, they also slipped a couple older ones in, like the old favourite "Idle Song", and a brief encore consisting of "A Latex Ice Age". Even before the band split, it had been quite some time since I last saw them live, so I was very happy to hear not only about the reunion, but to see them live again.

In all, it was a very fun night showcasing some of the finest among Paper Bag Records’ current roster, and a room full of familiar faces there to support the bands, the label, and the local scene.