The Head and The Heart

The Live At Massey Hall series returned for its second year on Saturday. Showcasing Canadian talents, it provides them with an opportunity to play at this historic venue. The audience is rewarded exceptionally cheap tickets: $18.94 for all seats. Tonight, two male songwriters were showcased.

Hayden has been around for a while. As such, he was not only comfortable on stage, but with his easy manner and jokes, made the space felt intimate. Although there was a range to his music, as seen by an older song about a "murder with a bass guitar" (Bass Song), it was the tunes describing small moments that highlighted his stellar writing. Woody, a song about waiting for his cat, was quietly satisfying. While No Happy Birthday, a ballad to his non-verbal daughter, was hopeful but heart-breaking.

Dan Mangan had a bigger stage set-up. So his sound was fuller and sonically rich. There were several from his new album that channeled anger about the current climate of fear and greed. Yet in many ways, the arrangements didn't match his lyrics. Instead of distilling the emotional content, and being a foundation for his complex lyrics, the music often wandered into noodling and unsatisfying detours. There were some great ideas that started strongly but often fell apart at the end.