The show is going to be bigger and better than it’s ever been as Mason Rack returns to LB’s Pub this weekend. Rack, the Australian bluesman whose raspy, rousing voice is unparalleled in the industry, can’t wait to hit the stage and get the crowd going.

From one end of his tour to the other, the singer/songwriter/musician says there’s one thing that he has noticed about his audiences.

“They just get louder every time,” he said.

This is the sixth time the Mason Rack Band has toured the country and Friday marks the fourth time in St. Albert. The show will feature the same high energy as the previous visits but Rack promises a new thing or two.

“We’ve just brought the show from Germany. We just got picked up by a promotion company out there. It’s the biggest show that we can do that we’ll be bringing.”

When listening to his songs and the way he belts them out, it’s difficult (if not impossible) not to feel energized. It must be impossible for people to sit through his shows too.

“Sometimes we’ve done shows and there will be people sitting and a whole bunch of people will come to the front and stand up, then all of the people at the back can’t see. Then I’ll play a slow song and get everyone at the front to sit down.”

Rack himself is not one to sit down. He is known to get into the music so much that he sometimes plays on the tables, chairs, walls and the bar itself. The blues-rock set list is sure to please, as it touches on the 18 tracks on his new DVD, as well as his five other CDs.

The DVD is called Live @ SOLBAR, and it was recorded on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. It was recorded in front of yet another of his sell-out audiences in a rather small, intimate venue, Rack admits, calling it a top-notch way to relive the Rack at home.

“We spent a whole bunch of money on the audio and so the audio is really good. We spent more money on the audio than we did on the filming,” he laughed.

Rack brings with him Edmonton’s Joel “Thunderfoot” Purkess on drums and bassist Nathan Lee-Archer. With everything that he’s got going for him – natural talent, popularity and an established fan base – it seems like there couldn’t be anything more perfect for him to spend the rest of his life doing.

When asked if he could imagine having another profession, he drily responded, “Sometimes, yeah. I still like the alternative stuff. I like rock and alternative music. Also I like jazz too.”

“We’ve been really fortunate from the start. My whole outlook on that stuff is to try and play a show that’s not always blues.”

The band plays more than 100 shows each year and will have done almost 200 by the end of 2012. Its tour most recently had them appear in Red Deer. After Friday, they go off to other points throughout Alberta before moving on to British Columbia. They return to the Beaumont Blues Festival in September.

“It’s a blur. We usually get to Canada and go, ‘Weren’t we just here?’ and we got home and go, ‘What just happened?’ We just did something like 37 shows in 60 days.”

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