Live Music Review: The Weakerthans, Oct. 5, Seattle
“This next song is about curling…”
Lesson one in how to detect that the band is Canadian.
The Weakerthans are a well-known Canadian indie entity. Pleasant guitar melodies and thoughtful but quirky lyrics are their calling cards.
(note: not my video, but that’s the same show)
The opening acts were Jeremy Fisher, who seems to be a great guitarist with real enthusiasm, and also the Last Town Chorus. Permit me to make a brief comment regarding the Last Town Chorus. This is a band that makes copious use of the steel slide guitar, and is best known for their cover of “Modern Love” that was used in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Perhaps their album sounds better, but live this band was an unintelligible mess. Truly horrible. The crowd yelled out “you suck!” at one point, and we had to agree.
Let me say that I like the Weakerthans a great deal. “Left and Leaving” is a classic, and for the most part I find them very affecting and moving. That said, their new album — “Reunion Tour” — did not, in my opinion, rise to the same level as their past work. Each song seemed to be overproduced and edited to fit that magic 3 minute mark. As I listened to the album I found myself looking forward to hearing them live, if only to see them bust out of the confines of the studio album.
Alas, it was not meant to be. A few peeves:
1. I’m one of those people who wants to hear the banter. I like hearing stories about how songs were inspired or of how the tour bus broke down. But the Weakerthans provided nothing. Barely any commentary at all. Admittedly, when they spoke they had fun stuff to say, but I wanted more.
2. The front man, John Samson, had this weird smirk. Like every song was this kind of joke or something. I know it was probably unintentional, but it completely deflated all these moving and meaningful songs when he’s singing with a smirk!
3. Don’t be afraid to riff/improvise! For the most part, songs were performed as they are on the albums. I was hoping for some medleys, some covers, anything to show that they’ve put together a live show with some real difference.
These are just nitpicks — it was still a great show and a band that I respect very much. They’ve got 7-8 shows left, including in Chi-town and NYC, so if you like the band and the music, I recommend checking them out.
The smirk thing reminds me of the first time I saw High on Fire, a metal band. I was near the back of the bar and the singer had what looked to be a giant grin on his face the entire time. Then next time I saw them, I was right against the stage, and I realized it was a scary grimace. Funny how the two are so close in appearance.
The wishing bands would speak more can be one of those careful-what-you-wish-for things.
Comment by Susan M — October 16, 2007 @ 2:59 pm
Funny… I wrote similar about The Last Town Chorus in my review of their Vancouver gig…
I know what you’re saying about not doing a cover or medley or anything a little different – but they have such a big catalogue they couldn’t even play all my faves.
I took his smirk to be a grin, they were loving playing live and all of them had a grin for the whole show in Vancouver.
They were probably grinning at the first time in their lives the Canadian dollar they brought with them had real buying power
Comment by Neil — October 16, 2007 @ 3:37 pm
Neil, right on re: the dollar! They are loving life right now. And you’re right about the catalogue. This may just come down to personal choices and preferences, but when I see a band live, I want to see some variation and uniqueness vs. the album. Otherwise I could listen at home and be comfortably seated doing it!
Comment by Supergenius — October 16, 2007 @ 3:43 pm
Amen to that!
Comment by tracy m — October 16, 2007 @ 4:58 pm
supergenius, thanks for the introduction. i like their sound. and as for the banter, i love the banter. i love to know that the band is real.
Comment by aubrey — October 16, 2007 @ 11:06 pm
[...] As they began to play, I was prepared for the sort of impersonal, professional show that their whole vibe seemed to be geared for. And there was something a bit impersonal about it. Interpol doesn’t exactly go out of their way to connect with the audience, and they are a deadly serious band, with deadly serious, blood-loyal fans who had, by the time the band started playing, jammed the club from the floor to the rafters. There’s no nonsense at an Interpol show. No chit-chat, no banter, no stage talk between songs, no announcing the names of the songs or telling cute stories about how they came up with the tunes, none of that. This contrasted sharply with Liars and provided us an opportunity to think about whether banter is generally a good thing or a bad thing (a subject being dscusseed by Steve over on Kulturblog). [...]
Pingback by Interpol at In The Venue « MCQESQ — October 17, 2007 @ 4:28 am
Too bad you experienced a poor performance of The Last Town Chorus. I think Megan of TLTC is super talented. Maybe you should give the album a listen and see if it sounds better than the live show.
I’ve seen TLTC four times. Three times she was amazing and the fourth seemed like something was “off”. Maybe you just saw them on an off night.
Comment by Lisa — October 17, 2007 @ 12:23 pm
Lisa, you could certainly be right. This was a very off night for them.
Comment by Supergenius — October 17, 2007 @ 12:45 pm
TLTC – I just don’t think they play the right type of music for a large live venue. dreadful to watch and soooo samy.
Two people motionless playing self-indulgent Kate Bush/Clannad/80s style fem-goth. Maybe in a small venue they would be different, but they were totally lost in The Commodore. People around us stood and chatted… they appeared to be playing for themselves – majorly tedious.
Speaking of banter… if you thought The Weakerthans were quiet… TLTC were like Kermit the Frog without human assistance.
Comment by Neil — October 17, 2007 @ 5:48 pm