Gave Up The Ghost

On Saturday, I went to Massey Hall for the final Live At Massey Hall series for the spring. Both bands came from the two ends of Canada: Lisa LeBlanc from New Brunswick and Spirit of the West from Vancouver.

LeBlanc grew up in a town of 51 people and she described her music as "folk-trash". Certainly, she won over the audience with her disarming "franglish" (which she noted sometimes become worse through brain farts) and her banjo-heavy, rock-out music. Her French songs were often feel-good bar songs (J'Pas un Cowboy) while her English tunes eschewed rhyme for quiet observation (The Waiting List). Looking at the people around her merch table afterwards, it seems like LeBlanc has a lot of new fans.

But the audience came for the venerable Spirit of The West. Their final song was the rousing classic Home for a Rest. I mention this because for me, this was the highlight of the evening. Kudos to the high-energy in the crowd who often stood up and danced. Massey Hall security had to get people out of the aisle several times. Yet this was the text-book definition of "dad-rock". They joked that their most recent song was 12 years old. They're not wrong. I didn't mind (too much) the banal lyrics but the dated arrangements held no interest for me. The sing-along tunes like The Old Sod were catchier but overall, I didn't have much fun with this set.