In-store: Noah and the Whale

Noah and the Whale

Criminal Records. Saturday, October 31, 2009.

Turned onto Queen Street just a few minutes before the noon start time for this one to find a small queue outside Criminal Records, the doors still closed and the tour bus looming parallel along the curb. So wait for a few minutes, listening to the young women behind me in the line arguing back and forth whether or not the one of them had said last summer that the first Noah and the Whale album was one of her favourites, of, like, ever. Not a dilemma for myself — truth be told, I'd not heard any of their music, and was here on spec. Well, that, plus it was more or less a side-stop on the way to an early matinée, otherwise I'd probably not have bothered.

A bit past the top of the hour, the door opened and the crowd filed in — a good sized showing, filling the space up pretty well. Once the five players had filed in from their bus, we were all urged to sit down to allow everyone a view — which was quite fine by me and ultimately fit the vibe. The band looked a little groggy, but that seemed to fit, too, with leader Charlie Fink singing, "this is a song for anyone who can't get out of bed," on their opener "Blue Skies"¹ — and making it feel immediately autobiographical. Gentle, goes-down-easy folk-pop with a heaping side order of mope seemed to be their m.o., and it was all pleasant enough. Don't know how much louder and rougher they bring it when rocking out, but for this appearance they came across like a band that the girls could take home to mother.

Four songs in twenty minutes, and they did manage to build up a bit of a head of steam by "Love of an Orchestra", the final selection. "Are any of you guys coming to the show tonight?" Fink asked, and a few clapped, though certainly a goodly proportion of this crowd wouldn't be of age for it. Myself, I didn't depart feeling like I'd be missing something be being elsewhere on the evening, but it was a pleasant-enough early afternoon diversion.

Listen to a track from this performance here.

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¹ Um, an original — not related to the Irving Berlin number.