The Fugitives

“Accompanying themselves on various combinations of banjo, guitar, melodica and percussion, The Fugitives are capable of achieving dizzying, Arcade Fire-ish crescendos, replete with parallel melodies, complex harmonies and brimming torrents of emotion.” – Uptown Magazine, Winnipeg ************************************************************ **** “One of the best events we’ve ever had…right up there with Allen Ginsberg and Ken Kesey” – Executive Director, Dylan Thomas Festival (UK) ************************************************************ ****The Fugitives, a combination of multi-talented Vancouver artists Mark Berube, Barbara Adler, and Brendan McLeod, have been classified under many guises: slam folk, folk hop, spoken word cabaret. Yet a common throughline is always their remarkable storytelling abilities. That, and the fact that audiences all over the world have never seen anything like this blend of skilful musicianship and passionate performance poetry.Since their formation three years ago, The Fugitives have been everywhere, touring Europe four times and Canada twice. In that time they have gone from performing in old bank vaults in London to university classes in Germany to recent main stage appearances on the Canadian folk festival circuit. In the past year alone, they have sold out headlining shows at festivals as diverse as the Vienna Literary Festival, the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, the Vancouver Jazz Festival, and the Chutzpah Dance Festival. Their live shows, where they are accompanied by versatile instrumentalist Steven Charles, have been critically acclaimed for their passion and poignancy. As the CBC puts it, “whether you go for the poetry, the music, or both, this show is simply brilliant.”There is no place The Fugitives haven’t played, and the maturity shows on their newest release, In Streetlight Communion. Distributed by Festival and featuring collaborations with members of The Be Good Tanyas, Po’ Girl, TOFU, and The Breakmen, the album carefully straddles musical and poetic worlds, delivering insightful lyrics and passionate harmonies over home hitting riffs. It is a new kind of music, one the Vancouver Province praises by saying, “fences are being broken down here.”The Fugitives are not a political band, per say. They don’t offer up trite slogans or ubiquitous aphorisms or overtly rail against the government. What they do offer us, in a time when meaningless abounds, when billboards scream absurdities and our radio stammers out the same old cliches, is a change. They confront us with a land where lyrics and instruments co-exist on the same plain, where content and form are equally important to an aesthetic message. Music like this forces us to listen with both our head and our heart, and in times such as these, it is a cause for celebration.