Ladies and Doyle throw a party on tour’s last day
Barenaked Ladies with Alan Doyle Southam Hall, National Arts Centre Reviewed Saturday night
When a long tour comes to an end, it’s a tradition for road-fried musicians to have a little more fun on the final night.
Such was the case for Barenaked Ladies, who ended a sixweek Canadian tour in Ottawa on Saturday with a concert that involved underwear, stuffed animals and impersonations of the Queen — although it was sometimes tricky to tell if these were regular BNL concert hijinks or closing-night shenanigans.
Either way, the high spirits made for an entertaining evening, and the sold-out audience loved it. Catchy songs, tight musicianship and a frequently zany sense of humour kept things running at a brisk pace.
A big bonus was the opening act: Great Big Sea’s Alan Doyle unfurled a crisp set of his solo material with a hand-picked band he calls the Beautiful Gypsies (renamed the Beautiful Tipsies in honour of the tour’s conclusion). More about them in a moment.
The main attraction was a group of four fully clothed men who have been making music together for 27 years, weathering the ups and downs of life along the way, including the 2009 departure of a key member, Steven Page, who left under unsavoury circumstances and went on to a solo career. This year, the Ladies have been on the road fairly steadily since the June release of Silverball, their 11th album (third post-Page), its title inspired by singer Ed Robertson’s fascination with pinball machines. For him, one of the big attractions in Ottawa was a visit to the House of Targ, the Bank Street nightclub with a large collection of the vintage gaming machines and a kitchen that specializes in perogies. “I go for the pinball. I come back for the perogies,” Robertson declared as he talked about his day in the nation’s capital, touching on the “unexpected joy” of catching a glimpse of Santa Claus on parade.
The Ladies kicked off the show with one of the best of their new batch of songs, an ode to survival that begins with the line, “I’m a little bit worse for wear, got a little bit more grey hair.”
It was a fitting liftoff to a concert that drew from every phase of the band’s career, from early hits such as Brian Wilson and If I Had a Million Dollars to Grammy-nominated tunes Pinch Me and One Week to the ubiquitous theme song to the hit TV series, Big Bang Theory. They threw in some covers, including Bruce Cockburn’s Lovers in a Dangerous Time, a hit for BNL in the ’90s, and a crowd-pleasing medley that wove together current hits such as Can’t Feel My Face, Shake it Off and Uptown Funk.
While there was a sense that something was missing early in the show (perhaps the extra harmonies and banter of a fifth member), it didn’t take long for the Ladies to fill in the gaps. Multiinstrumentalist Kevin Hearn played a prominent role in rounding out the music with his inventive playing, bassist Jim Creeggan had an extra-funky swagger, and drummer Tyler Stewart expanded his impeccable timing to serve as foil for Robertson’s comedy.
Toward the end, they brought out each member of Doyle’s band to play on various songs, including the talented fiddler, Kendel Carson, culminating in a singalong of If I Had a Million Dollars featuring both bands, as well as the audience. The grand finale was a face-melting double punch of an encore that included Drawing, a song from their children’s album reinvented as a Stooges-like screamer sung by Stewart, and the classic Zep tune Rock and Roll.
Doyle’s terrific opening set would have been difficult for a lesser band to follow. The gregarious singer-songwriter ramped up his dynamic performance even more than usual, refusing to waste a second of his precious stage time. His enthusiasm had everyone in the crowd on their feet by the second tune.
With fiddle, accordion and mandolin players onstage with him, Doyle clearly hadn’t lost sight of his folk roots, although the focus was on his original material. Long hair flying, the grinning Doyle sang with gusto and was bouncing with energy as he tore through I Can’t Dance Without You, the GBS song When I’m Up, and So It’s Gone. There was a brief change of pace for the poignant Laying Down to Perish before the band settled into the electric-guitar crunch of I’ve Seen a Lot, letting their rock flags fly. Another highlight was the recent single, The Night Loves Us, one of Doyle’s first songs to be played on U.S. radio.
Other GBS songs in the set included Ordinary Day and Sea of No Cares. Barenaked Ladies’ Robertson made a guest appearance on accordion, sending up a rollicking version of 1 2 3 4.