Like many great bands, She Stole My Beer is tough to hang a label on. Originating from Vancouver’s north shore, the septet has been at it for over 20 years. Two albums, a touring period, and a rude awakening to the realities of the music business have all come and gone but the live shows live on with just enough infrequency to keep their devoted fan base coming back in droves.

The band prefers to keep the labeling obtuse and unofficially (the band doesn’t do much officially) list influences like Lynard Skynyrd, Neil Young, and John Prine. The result is a live show made up of a mix of covers and originals with a repertoire large enough that they never been accused of ever having done the same show twice. While the studio days are gone and the gigs are restricted by personal schedules and the band rarely wanders far from it’s base in the BC lower mainland, they still pack ‘em in and never struggle to find a venue to take on a guaranteed sell out.

Their following in Whistler reflects the population of a flourishing town that doesn’t quite want to let go of a lost era when a SSMB gig was a fairly regular event. Despite the transient nature of the community, new faces can been seen at every show, mixed in with those of the long time locals looking to escape back to a simpler era. The crowd you see today still brings the same energy but they likely scrambled to find a babysitter to make it out to the show (in the old days all they needed was a safe place to lock up their bike and a little help scrounging up the $10 to get in). It’s a huge credit to both the showmanship and the music itself that a SSMB gig is still an event that gets the town buzzing.

All grown up and with real jobs, She Stole My Beer now approaches their sprinkling of gigs as a social event. An opportunity for some old friends to get together and provide an escape for their fans in the process. It provides for a truly organic musical experience, something that many of the bands’ fans may find quite fleeting these days.
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