The Ingredients

In the week following The Ingredients’ CD release party at the Vancouver East Cultural Center on on March 18th, I found myself humming almost every one of the tunes from the local rockers’ self-titled debut release and was often unable to get them out of my head. Although I didn’t get a chance to pick up the album, a few friends of mine did; and they made sure to put it on every time I was around.

I arrived about half an hour late to the show and caught the second half of the tight but disappointing opening act Infinitism. Well, let’s not bask in euphemisms: frankly, they were terrible. Their repertoire consisted of original songs that were straight off the “Darn, life sucks” shelf of the nu-metal section; and they frequently engaged in ridiculous inter-song banter. Incidentally, after the opening act, I was somewhat eager for the headliners to begin, since I had only seen them perform once before in a living room with less than adequate sound. The Cultch was about half full (consisting of mostly friends and acquaintances of the band) as The Ingredients took the stage with singer/guitarist Adrian Underhill dressed in a white suit and very much resembling Eric Clapton during his seventies days. Guitarist Max Sample, drummer Miles Bruce, and bassist Peter Carruthers (clad in fairly basic clothes compared to Underhill) took their spots; and after a crack about the possibility of Bruce singing -apparently a rare spectacle- the band broke into the opening track from their album. The somewhat short but consistent set was made up solely of songs from their CD, with little conversation in between songs; but all the tunes were well received by the crowd as almost the entire audience got up and boogied. Bruce even sang a chorus with the rest of the band during their lighter and slightly less danceable song “I’ll Make It.” The show ended after the band performed what they later told me was ten songs including an encore: I only counted seven, but I could have easily lost count.

The appropriate choice of venue proved a good decision as the clarity of the sound contributed greatly to the band’s songs and the CD’s flew off the table into the hands of newly acquired fans. The band later told me there was some pre-show concern regarding the arrival of the CD’s, but everything came together and the evening was a success; and despite the limited set, The Ingredients gave an energetic and fairly polished performance.

- Emile Scott - Youthink

...Headlining the event was a band hailing from East Vancouver that just released a full-length self-titled CD in March, The Ingredients (www.the-ingredients.com). The Ingredients’ fun, catchy and upbeat songs electrified the crowd and drove them into a dance fever making it the perfect ending for the night. The crowd dispersed slowly, content with another opportunity to pause the boredom of suburbia for a little while...

- Amber McBride and Vanessa LeBlanc - Youthink

“What an amazing show!” These were my exact thoughts seconds after the Ingredients left the stage at the Mesa Luna on Thursday, October 20th....These local alt-indie-rock-pop heroes blew the roof off the Mesa Luna. Lead guitarist Max Sample and singer-guitarist Adrian Underhill played off each other the whole show, feeding off their harmonized licks, while one of Vancouver’s best rhythm section (Peter Carruthers on bass and Miles Bruce on drums) locked the band into a flawless groove. Notable in their set was the all around unbelievable track “Things Have Changed.”

- David Amar

- Youthink