My Canadian music week continued earlier this evening with the brilliant Barenaked Ladies. They are quite simply one of the most fun groups around. And don’t think they’re not talented either; from drummer to bass to keyboards/accordian, they’re exceptional musicians.
The one track that just about everyone knows is the radio friendly “One Week”, but guess what? They have loads more really fun stuff like that. And they put on a show. Not in the U2/Michael Jackson mode with vast set pieces. The stage at the Hammersmith Apollo was basically just the band and their instruments. But the guys are just brimming with excitement. If anyone in that audience was the slightest bit down when they got there, it’d have taken them about 30 seconds to brighten up as soon Steven Page or Ed Robertson started performing mocking guitar “thrusts”. There’s plenty of banter and general mucking about. Basically, they take the piss.
A huge North American contingent were out – most audibly for me in the guise of a woman behind me who was quite fanatically happy, and couldn’t help screaming the entire evening whilst jumping up and down. She also regularly hit the back of my head, but I forgave her because she was so enthusiastic (about the band, not hitting the back of my head).
I couldn’t help but notice that the Barenaked fanbase is quite possibly the shortest known to man. Is it something in the genetic make-up that makes people of a certain “less lanky” height love the music? I don’t know about that, but I do know I was a full head taller than anyone else even vaguely in front of me, and that there were initially issues with a woman behind me about our party, and in particular me, blocking her view. After I’d explained that me standing 20 feet off to one side would make me come across as being a little unsociable towards by companions, a reordering of who stood where became a compromise. So great was the size difference, that I began to suspect that the floor of the Hammersmith Apollo was akin to that of a swimming pool, with a sudden drop as you get towards the deep end. Look, I’m only 6’2″ and I do sympathise with short people who stand at concerts. I do whatever I can to avoid causing problems. When I go to the cinema, I always try to sit in front of an empty seat so that anyone who comes along afterwards and sits behind me should have been fully aware that they were going to sit behind a tall person. And even then, if I can “sense” that they’re suffering from a restricted view, I slouch down into my seat, even though I feel sure that I’m only storing up future back problems. I try, I really do.
Anyway, the latest album, Everything to Everyone, is just out in the UK and I heartily recommend it (Likewise, I’ve now heard the new Cowboy Junkies album, One Soul Now, and it’s essential that everyone gets the early release that includes the bonus EP).
The support act were really good too. A band I’d never heard of before (not difficult) called The Honeymoon. Their lead singer, Thorunn, is Icelandic, and has a great voice, and a stage persona that seems to be ever so slightly modelled on Marilyn Monroe. I shall hunt out their recently released debut EP, Passive Aggressive, in a spare lunchtime.
What a great week for music!
On the way home, I think I may have spotted the only person in the universe to complete the NME Crossword.