Saturday, December 13, 2014

Barenaked Christmas concert

So I am back from sort of a strange concert.  I was actually supposed to go yesterday, but then the school scheduled a winter concert and I had to scramble to exchange my ticket for tonight.  Even though I had to pay to upgrade, it seemed to work out for the best.  The seats next to me were empty (probably people having trouble traveling with the extra snow on the roads).  Anyway, the concert was billed as holiday songs mixed in with some of Barenaked Ladies greatest hits.

First off, I don't even think they got to 1/3 of the material being holiday songs, though perhaps if you count "Snowman" and "Green Christmas" it gets close to that.  Second, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but the full TSO was playing behind them on nearly all songs.  It turns out that Andrew Creegan (one of the founding members, but no longer officially with the band) scored most of the songs for orchestra, and in some cases the arrangements were quite interesting.  Actually "Pinch Me" had so much going on that I didn't even recognize it for a while.  I think the one thing I would have changed would be have brought the vocals up in the mix a bit more, but it wasn't a huge problem.

I guess this makes the 3rd time I've seen them.  The first time was also in Toronto in 1993 when the Creegans were playing part of a Christmas show headlined by Sarah McLachlan.  I can't recall who else was there, but there were a few other Toronto-based bands.  Anyway, the Creegans did a song or two and then, surprise, surprise, the other members of Barenaked Ladies joined them and they did a few songs.  I have no real recollection of what they did, but I have to assume it was "Brian Wilson" and "If I Had a Million Dollars."

Then five or so years ago, they played Chicago during a summer festival (it was 2009, so Steve Page had just left the band).  It was the Taste of Chicago.  The setlist looks pretty good, though no "Blame It on Me," perhaps because it isn't much of a kids' song.  I think had we still been living in the South Loop, I would have taken my son.  I kind of hope they play a summer festival in 2015 or 2016, as I think the kids would enjoy them.  There were quite a few kids in attendance tonight, but the late night and the steep ticket prices kept me from bringing my kids.  The weird thing was the average age of the fans was 5 to 10 years older than me, whereas I thought I was basically a pretty typical fan from way back when.  I guess they really are a Toronto institution if they can consistently pull a much older crowd (than even the band members).

So they kicked off with the Bruce Cockburn cover "Lovers in a Dangerous Time."  The first set ended with "Brian Wilson."  I believe it was in the second set that they did an acoustic version of "Blame It On Me" without the orchestra backing them at all.  This may in fact be my favourite track off of Gordon, so I was really glad I hear them do it. I thought the version of "One Week" that they did was quite interesting -- it almost sounded like a trance version and there was some interesting xylophone support from the percussion section.  They wrapped up with a solid version of "Million Dollars" with the crowd encouraged to sing along at the end.  Then they did their patented mash up of rap and other current hits -- I didn't know most of them other than Lorde's "Royals."  The encore was "Feliz Navidad," which was certainly appropriate, though I had really been hoping for "The Old Apartment," which was the only major hit that was left out, as far as I can remember.  I would definitely have preferred they dropped "Boomerang" in exchange for "The Old Apartment."  Well, I'll probably hear that the next time I see them.  Anyway, it was a very upbeat and often funny concert with the band members razzing each other a bit, as they are wont to do.

Definitely worth seeing, but it is still hard to believe that Gordon was released over 20 years ago.  That's the kind of stuff that makes you feel old.  I am sorry that I missed the McLachlan concert back in Nov., but Massey Hall doesn't have nearly as many seats as one might imagine, and by the time I tried to book, the only seats left were quite expensive ones with restricted views.  I wasn't going to go for that, so I'll just see if she tours next year or in 2016 and try to be a bit more on the ball next time.  But it really does sort of seem that musically at least my early 90s obsessions are coming back around, even if they aren't doing full blown tours.  It's a bit eerie actually.  Well, at least I know for certain that Moxy Fruvous won't be reforming and touring...

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