performing this year
Miesha and The Spanks
Where have all the riot grrrls gone? You ask – Miesha & The Spanks answer. If you’ve got a yearning for flashy yet classic hard rock, look no further – this Calgary-based duo has the guitar hero-worshiping, face melting, whisky belting sound that you’ve been seeking.
A modern singer/guitarist and beloved fixture on the local scene, frontwoman Miesha Louie is the integral driving force behind Miesha & The Spanks. A mixed-Secwépemc artist living in Treaty 7 Territory, she’s devoted her entire career to inventing and playing instrumentally brilliant melodies that unleash her passions and her full-throated vocal tones.
As a result, Miesha & The Spanks have become a tighter and more muscular version of themselves with each new release. Miesha’s solos are as quintessentially rock as they come. Her anarchic, femme-powered vibes causing audiences to erupt in devil-horn-raising celebration of razor-sharp hooks delivered with fire and flare.
Percussionist Sean Hamilton (an accomplished singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist in his own right) is her psychic counterpart, intuitively punctuating her soulful choruses with a pounding intensity simultaneously that elevates heart rates and ceiling rafters.
Bursting onto the circuit with a stamp of approval from producer and alt-rock idol Ian Blurton, Miesha’s coming out party Girls, Like Wolves, was the virtual debutante ball from Hell. Interweaving her impressive song writing skills and vocal versatility, that album & The band’s subsequent releases, 2016’s Stranger, and Girls, Girls, Girls (2018), tap into the synergy generated by Louie and her lone bandmate, percussionist Sean Hamilton. Their latter album has landed in the number one position on Earshot!’s National Loud charts in Canada, as well as topping on the Indigenous Music Countdown and winning no less than three Calgary-based music awards.
The group’s recent mid-pandemic EP, Singles (April 2021), was quickly snapped up by CBC Radio 3 and SiriusXM’s The Indigiverse, as well as meriting attention with features on The Rodney Bingenheimer Show, Strombo Show, Hockey Night in Canada, BBC6 Recommends with Steve Lamacq. To name a few. After collaborating in the live tour trenches for five years, the pair have never been more of their capabilities. They have been welcome additions to numerous festivals and have enjoyed performing at Future Echoes, Reeperbahn, Tallinn Music Week, and an Enki Music/Breakout West showcase in London, as well as at unique grassroots events like Siksika Nation’s Run As One Festival. Regardless of the venue, Louie’s stadium-scale vocals and Hamilton’s fast and fresh beats culminate in a stage presence that is as remarkably solid as it is wild and unexpected.
Miesha & The Spanks || sākihiwē festival 2021
Miesha and The Spanks || sākihiwē Export Accelerator
