2002-09-29 - 4:00

Comely and sinister

So, last night was the latest Montreal excursion. We made a bit of a late departure; but we still arrived in time for all of Trailer Bride's opening set. Wow. They were very impressive. Lead singer Melissa Swingle has a certain awkwardness in her nonetheless charming stage presence; and she certainly commands a kick-ass voice.

Her voice was front and centre in the mix; but I also very much enjoyed the band, especially the guitarist. And, I must admit, that was the first time that I've seen anyone play the saw at a concert.

Neko and company were late setting up; but with good cause. I'm pretty sure that we passed their tour bus being towed on the highway to Montreal. Despite that mishap, the band sounded great when they did get rolling.

Neko was her usual brilliant, beautiful, engaging self. She had two of her regular tourmates in tow: Tom V. Ray (now of the Ninth Bearded Infantry, it seems) on bass; and the always amusing Jon Rauhouse on lap steel guitar, electric guitar, and banjo. Percussion was limited to only sparse tambourine. At times, I found the placement of tambourine in the mix not to my liking; but other than that, I have no complaints.

That isn't to say that it was a flawless note-for-note performance; but that isn't the point. One of the highlights of the set was Jon fumbling his banjo solo on "Wayfaring Stranger" and stretching it out into a triumph; and Neko later admonished herself for forgetting the words to one of her own songs.

Neko's self-effacing charm and stage banter is always a treat. The Montreal concert included an ongoing exchange with members of the National Film Board. Neko referred to them as, "the cutest little film board" and later responded to their enthusiastic bellowing by noting, "Apparently, they didn't mind the wait, since they spent the time getting drunk."

She also mentioned the tow truck driver who had helped them make it to Montreal and his love for a particlar Elvis impersonator. "Apparently, he actually ages during the show," she noted. Jon's reply: "Yeah, and in the end, he drops dead on the toilet."

(That doesn't quite top my favourite concert quote, which came when I saw Neko in Toronto and Jon responded to someone in the crowd by growling, "Give me a break; I'm drunk!")

As for the music itself, what needs to be said? Neko's voice is perfect and she is touring in support of her best collection of songs to date, Blacklisted. I'll try to write a real concert review tomorrow (which reminds me that I never actually added my last reviews to my site). In the end, the concert was everything that I would have hoped.

Despite the web site promise that Neko was looking for future ex-husbands, I failed to further my cause of walking down the aisle with her. However, I did walk up the stairs with her, as she was right beside me after the show, making her way to the merchandise counter.

Actually, that was rather cute, since she wasn't quite able to make her way around the one guy who was blocking her from the counter; and while she was clearly employing all of her telepathic powers to make him move, she was unwilling to actually force her way past him.

I didn't get to speak with Neko this time, instead settling for picking up a T-shirt and Jon's CD and heading for home.

With the late show time, it was close to 4:00 by the time that Aaron and I got back to Ottawa (which I think justifies my laziness of today). Even apart from the concert, it was cool to get together with Aaron again and gab, since I don't cross paths with any of the old roomies too often.

So, it was another kick-ass concert trip, with the next just around the corner. Not bad.

J.