Last night we attended our third Barenaked Ladies concert. We like a wide range of music and cannot afford to go to many concerts, but are drawn back to see them repeatedly as it is the most entertaining concerts to which either of us have ever been.

The first concert we attended was March 7, 2001 at GM Place. Back then everyone still went to their local Ticketmaster to buy concert tickets. Tickets had gone on sale at 9:00 am on a Saturday, but work kept me from making it to the mall until 10:00. We still had excellent seats to the side, about 8 rows up (so no sore neck straining upward as we would have from the floor). Karin and I both had a love for their music, but had yet to experience the magical energy that is a BNL concert. Frontmen Steven Page and Ed Robertson captivated us with their energy, comedy and improvisation. The rest of the band quickly followed their leads, and the result was an experience beyond the all too common dry run-through of album materials (read Alan Jackson), or bands who’s entire method of interacting with the crowd are to repeat the name of your city over and over again.

Our next show was just over a year ago, on December 16, 2005; part of their Barenaked for the Holidays 2005 tour. This show was at the Orpheum, and by then most people had begun buying their tickets online. Knowing this, and being anxious to get the best tickets available; I was sitting at the keyboard at the 10:00 am start for ticket sales. As the clock turned to the top of the hour, I quickly clicked and had 4 seats in the center of row 4 reserved. Perfect seats! But wait, I meant to reserve only 2 seats! I quickly corrected everything, and now at 10:04 the best seats available were on the side of row 8. The slight disappointment was quickly removed as we experienced yet another fantastic show, and left the theatre promising to be back the next time they were in town.

Returning to today, for the first time in three years, the Ladies have released an album of new songs. Make that two albums. Or one really big one. It all depends. Having gone into their own studio that Steven built in his house (they have chosen to not resign with record companies and are independent now), they recorded 29 new songs that were worthy of release. The recording session occurred just before their last tour, and during the tour they debuted a different song at each stop. At our Orpheum show, they played Fun and Games. Having too many songs for a normal album, they released Barenaked Ladies are Me last September, which contains 13 songs; and Barenaked Ladies are Men, containing the remaining 16 songs, is to be released tomorrow, Feb. 6. That is, unless you were at the concert last night, in which case you could by it then. Or, on the other hand, if you bought the Barenaked Ladies are Me as an online download, then you had a choice of buying the deluxe version, which has “all” the songs; except it actually has 27 songs and is missing the last two tracks of the second album.

Confused? Well would you like me to tell you about the other options, such as buying it on a USB thumb drive, in order to reduce the number of CDs being thrown into landfills?

Where were we? Oh… a review of the new tour….

The resulting concert tour is called B.L.A.M. in order to cover whatever version of the album(s) you purchased. The US portion of the tour occurred last fall, and after a break for the holidays, the Canadian swing started. This time, I unfortunately could not be sitting ready to buy tickets at the release time, and by the time I could log in the best tickets were on the top row of the lower section, over half way back. These were not the worst seats, but for the first time we would be relying on the big screens to either side of the stage to see if the band members remembered to shave.

Opening act Tomi Swick was forgettable. He and his band performed a number of original songs and two covers (Paul Simon’s Graceland and another which Karin nor I can remember. Did I mention he was forgettable?). It was only on the covers that the words of the songs were recognizable, and that was only because we all already knew them and our brains compensated. Overall Tomi reminded me of a mediocre rock band in a nightclub with poor acoustics. Don’t misunderstand me, though; the inaudible lyrics were not the fault of the show’s sound system, as later proved by the clarity of BNL’s music and lyrics, but rather were due to Tomi’s mumbling. This was reinforced today by listening to some tunes from his website, which were clearer only due to the fact that I am no more than 12 inches from my speakers.

Luckily, the crowd was well aware of the energy that BNL exudes, and despite the lack of assistance from Tomi, they began to build up their own energy as we watched a movie on the big screens that poked fun of all the different ways one might add onto the title of the first albums to make something other than Men (my personal preference being Barenaked Ladies are Mentally Ill). As the final offering announced Barenaked Ladies Are HERE, the crowd roared as the lights came up and the band cranked out there first tune. From that point forward the energy level never dropped.

The stage appeared simple at first, but proved to be a complex series of back-lit cloth columns and beams, and LED covered background columns; all of which had their lighting coordinated together. The lighting, sound, and camera crews all had to be on their feet for the bands signature adlibs and other deviations from the program. When the cord leading from a belt backpack to Ed’s wireless earbuds kept moving out of place, a shaven head crew member rushed out while the lights were dark to fix it. The boys felt obligated to mention the bald headed man adjusting Ed’s rear, which quickly turned into a rap about their large number of bald crew. As Steven named all the different depilated crew, the lighting crew swung spotlights around to find each one, and the band played a backing song to the rap that had a good marching beat, as the improvised song instructed them to dance up onto the stage “or they ain’t getting paid”.

BNL’s sound crew did their usual fantastic job, as each instrument was clearly defined at just the right volume; while the vocals were still clear and crisp. Songs from the new album(s) were spliced with the crowd favorites. At one point the band broke into a 80’s music video style coordinated dance routine that ended in a brawl among their members.

We had purchased a third ticket for my father as his Christmas present and, though a fan himself, it was his first time seeing the Ladies in concert. He left the concert saying he’ll definitely come back with us next time. While we did have a fantastic time, we will have to ensure that we get better seats next time, as the energy level and excitement is even more the closer you are to the front.

Just as the band is different from most performers, so are their fans. There was no skunky smells, no fist fights, and afterward the crowd burst out the doors of the stadium propelled by the positive energy that a BNL concert instills in all.

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