By Lizz Bottrell
Citizen Staff

House of Doc is one of those bands that a person just has to see live in order to get the whole feel for what this amazingly talented band is all about.

From the moment the band walked onto the stage until their last encore involving the audience, anyone in attendance knew they were in for an experience.

Anyone lucky enough to have attended House of Doc’s performance at the Kipling Community Centre on April 11, knows the band doesn’t just simply perform. The band enlightens its audience with a whole musical experience, just by how they feel their music while on stage.

This writer has attended well over 100 live band performances, but House of Doc sits up there as one of the top 10. The way the band members present themselves on stage is unmatched by many well-known bands who perform in front of thousands of people.

House of Doc opened its first set with a very melodic tune performed solely with the use of the band members’ powerful voices and the stamping of their feet. Probably one of the most vocal songs of the night, one could hear that the band’s vocals ignited from somewhere deep within the soul. Matthew Harder, one of the four members in House of Doc commented during an interview a couple weeks back that they built their music around their vocals, which really shone through during this song.

Many of the songs performed during the night come from the band’s newest release, East of West, which was released in February.

While taking in House of Doc’s performance, one couldn’t help but feel in awe. There is just something so beautiful about musicians - they seem to be able to express themselves in a way most people could only dream of.

The high energy performance had audience members pumped up, in turn, allowing the band to feed off this newly discovered feeling.

Harder joked in between songs that they weren’t a typical Canadian folk band, which as anyone in attendance could see by the way the band dressed. Rebecca Harder, Matthew’s wife came onto stage wearing a flowing knee length black dress and black thigh high boots with a hint of red. All three guys sported suits with very modern hair styles. Though it’s Harder’s faux-hawk that likely received the most looks from audience members.

But it’s their looks that almost got them into trouble during a private gig they were asked to play in Warsaw, Poland. A very wealthy oil company had bought an old building and over the course of a year, completely redesigned it for a Canadian-themed dinner. “When you’re a wealthy Polish oil tycoon, you have a very different idea of what Canadian music is like,” said Harder. The band got there and saw everyone was dressed like they were straight out of the Midwest, causing the band to realize they were in big trouble. They weren’t exactly the type of band the oil tycoons were expecting. It’s likely that whenever they visited Canada, they went to Calgary, the so-called heart of oil and cowboys. “Lucky for us, we knew just how to impress a bunch of wealthy Polish oil tycoons from Calgary, AB,” joked Harder as they went into a funky pop-culture styled folk song.

During the band’s second set, their Celtic roots shone through. This music made a person want to jump out of his or her seat and dance around. One couldn’t help but tap his or her foot or clap his or her hands along to the catchy tunes.

‘Summerstone’ emerged as a crowd favourite from the night. Rebecca’s brother, Dan Wiebe’s, voice filled the entire hall during this song. He has one of those beautiful voices that engulf you and cause you to fall completely and utterly hopelessly in love. ‘Summerstone’ could fill a person from within, giving it the power to move someone to tears. Once the cello chimed in, something both serene and beautiful came over every single person in the hall. As the song continued to build to its much craved climax, audience members sat in complete awe. The dramatic orchestra-styled song left this writer with a newly inspired passion to write.

Of course, no song this amazing comes without a story as equally as amazing. The band recorded its latest CD in Bath, Ontario over a five-week period in a well-established studio owned by the Tragically Hip. “You can live and record for as many hours a day as you can before you pass out,” said Harder. After recording ‘Summerstone,’ the band sat down with a bottle of wine and blasted the song as loud as they could handle it. “While we were sitting and shamelessly enjoying our music, thinking, ‘oh man, we’re great,’ someone tuned in and said, ‘it’s going to be tough at a live show,” said Harder. “Turns out it’s not going to be tough at all,” added Harder. “It’s going to be tough,” said Jesse Krause, the guy who wrote most of the intricate parts to the song. “It will be tough for Jesse, but not the rest of us,” laughed Harder.

As the song ended, Harder said it was their version of a 30-man philharmonic. It really was hard to believe such a young four-piece band could play such a powerful piece. One had to be there and witness it with his or her own eyes in order to belive.

The night ended off with a couple more up-beat tunes before House of Doc hit the stage for an unexpected encore. They closed with a balladesque song titled ‘The Poet.’ which was about the death of Harder’s grandfather. The audience shared in this beautiful ballad by filling the entire hall with the very moving ‘Amazing Grace,’ when House of Doc gave them the cue. The emotion involved in this song felt reminiscent of a funeral. It seemed a flood of memories took over Harder as he sang out this wonderfully written song.

Anyone who missed House of Doc’s performance in Kipling can order their CDs off of iTunes or from their website. East of West especially, is a much-needed CD for music-lovers alike.