Gig: The Hidden Cameras

The Hidden Cameras

Goodhandy's. Tuesday, September 29, 2009.

Despite a couple invitations, I'd never quite had cause to visit Goodhandy's, the "pansexual" nightclub at the corner of Church and Richmond. But this was finally going to be the night — a special small-venue CD release gig, tickets available only with album purchase at Soundscapes and some other local stores. Making my way over through a dour, drizzling night, I showed my precious ticket at the door and headed up the stairs, wondering what manner of decadence I was headed into. It ended up being, unsurprisingly in retrospect, disarmingly normal — a bar is a bar in some ways, and form follows function.¹ Hank Williams playing in the background, found a spot to sit and flip through a copy of Xtra before A. showed up and we had a some time to chat. In fact it turned out to be a longer chat than anticipated — the nine o'clock start time on the ticket came and went and it was about ten to ten when the band took the stage. Time enough to check out the crowd some, seeing how easily they could be divided into folks who knew the spot and the music-lovin' tourists just checking out the band. That division was apparent upstairs in the bathrooms, doorless and defiantly not gender assigned in the usual way. But most of the guys on hand on this night were rigourously sticking to the one with the urinals. Mind you, that gave 'em a chance to think on the fact they were one night too early for the "live twink spanking" at midnight.²

But soon enough, the cowled band took the stage to the long, slow build of "Ratify the New". A small stage not usually used for this kind of live action required some creative personnel arrangements, leading to a rather dramatic presentation for the band, with the main five to seven players in front of the audience, the horn section on the second level to the left of the stage, and perpendicular to that, the choir, hovering ghost-like above the stage in front of what I was told were the private booths. "This is the ninth church in Toronto we've played," said head Cameraman Joel Gibb as the band slid into the bouncy "In the NA". Gibb confirmed, indeed, the plan for the night was to play the new album front to back and no old stuff. The crowd had no complaints with that, and the band did an excellent job with a full set of new material. I can't find a list of everyone in the current unit — there were several familiar faces including Maggie MacDonald and Laura Barrett — but I can't place some of the other members.³ Interestingly, this was the first time that I've seen the Hidden Cameras without at least one string player on stage, but with the dual-keyboards and horns, there was no lack of texture in the music.

Midway through the set, Gibb came close to losing his voice, soliciting a fortifying shot of scotch from the crowd that got him through. The band tossed a curveball into the track-for-track setlist by slipping in b-side "Pencil Case" before the fabulous "Underage" — a surefire hit in the offing with its dance-y rhythms and singalong a-whoo-ah's. After doing a respectable job of the complicated arrangement of "The Little Bit", the set closed out with the slow-dance splendour of "Silence Can Be a Headline". Taking only a quick step off the stage, the band encored with a song they claimed not to have played since their 2001 gig at the Metro Theatre, one I didn't recognize — there was a lyric about "the dark night of the" something, or possibly "dark light". An unrecorded original? A cover? Anyone know this one? All told, a fine show leaving me with anticipation with their main local gig, upcoming in December at the Opera House at the other end of their tour. Although there was a DJ and a post-gig party for the band, fans and celebrities in attendance⁴, we elected to head home.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ From one perspective, the biggest difference between a sports bar and a sex club is what manner of activity the muscular men on the big-screen TV's are involved in. Granted, though, most sports bars don't have cages. Or, I suppose, racks of their own in-house produced hardcore DVD's.

² When I mentioned this to A., he just rolled his eyes and said, "oh, it's not as interesting as it sounds."

³ Can anyone run off a list of the current touring band so they can be praised by name? Singled out for special recognition at this show should be the member of the horn section who came down to play guitar on one song, having to fight his way through the crowd and up the stairs to move back and forth.

⁴ Including Glen Murray, former mayor of Winnipeg (and once, long ago, my city councillor), who was warmly welcomed from the stage.