The Weakerthans-More Canadian Cool

The Weakerthans
October 24, 2007
The Magic Stick - Detroit

Of all the shows where I thought I might be thrown up upon the Weakerthans, with their dense lyrics (in the liner notes they are always printed as paragraphs) and complicated melodies (not really hummable in the traditional sense) wouldn't have even been in the top 10. But there we were standing and the guy just lost it. Through some complicated physics I don't quite get (blowback?) some got in my hair but it did not deter me from having a terrific time at this great show.

I had not seen them before and despite the recent lack of music in my life and my slow warmup to their new record Reunion Tour, their previous one Reconstruction Site was so amazing it would be hard to follow, it was just what I needed. We waited patiently through 2 opening acts-Jim Bryson (no relation to Peabo) a sort of one man band singer/songwriter with everything but those cymbals you play with your knees and Broken Social Club, who sounded like Mazzy Star if they had been discordant instead of languid. (Joe offered me a dollar to shout Mazzy Star during the quiet songs but I declined.)

Finally though it was time. With several band members' punk backgrounds the Weakerthans can totally rock as on my favorite "Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucalt in Paris 1961)" which is fast then faster then faster still but they can also put over the slow ones as with "One Great City!" during which you could have heard a pin drop. And I don't know if it's the super loyal Canadian fans, who I have frequently written about before, but the crowd knew all the words which did make for some unusual sing a longs. I mean when everyone is singing along with "Thunder Road" it doesn't surprise but when everyone is singing along with "Plea from a Cat named Virtute" (which gets my vote for the best cat song ever) "I swear I'm gonna bite you hard/and taste your tinny blood/if you don't stop these self defeating lies you've been repeating/since the day you brought me home" well, that's another thing. And I was happy to be one of them.