Gig: Tranzac New Year's Eve

Tranzac New Year's Eve (feat. Diamond Rings, Jim Guthrie, Gentleman Reg, The Magic, Mantler)

The Tranzac. Thursday, December 31, 2009.

You could make a big deal out of New Year's Eve, I guess. Some people do. Having tried the various options, these days I mostly prefer to find a gig to go to and generally treat it like a usual night. Kudos to the Tranzac, then, for throwing together some sweet New Years' shows, that basically feature a likable selection of local artists and draw a nice crowd with some familiar, friendly faces. Having had a good time at last year's event (featuring The Bicycles ushering in the new year) I knew there wasn't anywhere else I'd want to be.¹

An abundance of choices in the early going, with appealing acts going down in both the main hall and the Southern Cross lounge. But I decided to stick it out in the more spacious room with Diamond Rings — just to have one last rendezvous with the single of the year and John O'Regan's other tasty pop confections, even if it meant missing the much-talked-about debut of Sheezer² — and even if that meant I'd have the too-damn-catchy Cure-like piano line of "On Our Own" stuck in my head for a few more days. Wearing a tunic covered with a constellation of glittering stars — as if he'd been taking a costuming class with Robin Starveling — O'Regan sashayed from guit to keyb with grace, even if his on-stage persona remains humbly anti-diva. Can't wait to hear more companions to the fine half dozen songs in his set right now. This was one of the sounds of 2009 for me, so it felt proper to have this set as part of the year's send-off.

Next up, a rare occasion indeed. With folks looking back over the past ten years, perhaps a very timely re-emergence for Jim Guthrie, whose work at the other end of the decade was no small part of the groundwork of T.O.'s indie explosion.³ As things were getting set up, I was getting excited, as it looked like he'd put together an all-star backing band for the occasion.⁴ "It's been awhile, so please go easy on us," Guthrie said as the seven-member crew began creating a lush backdrop for his songs.

Although there's been signs here and there — a much-talked-about commercial jingle; sideman duties with Islands; the Human Highway album; some soundtrack work, including local doc When We Were Boys — it's hard to believe that it's been so long since 2003's Now, More Than Ever. Whether because it's the most temporally proximate or it was more amenable to live band arrangements, it formed the backbone of the setlist, including the first three tracks. Then the band reached back to 2002's Morning Noon Night for "Trouble", the carefully modulated live textures adding a different dimension to the song than is in its somewhat tinny original recording."We're just playin' oldies tonight, all oldies," Guthrie commented, although the as-yet-unrecorded "Difference A Day Makes" (which appears to be bouncing around the net in demo format) got an airing. Going out on a mellow note, Guthrie grabbed his ukulele, ending with the existential love song "You are Far (Do You Exist?)". A welcome return, the significance understood by some in the room, even if he was playing to the chattiest crowd of the evening.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Not wanting to get stuck around more chatterboxes, as the crowd shifted during the set break I moved pretty much front and centre. And why not? Given that this had become, just sorta by accident, a full year of Gentleman Reg, it seemed quite befitting to have him right there for the last set I'd see before the turning of the year. And, indeed, it turned out sounding pretty good, even if I was blasted a little from Reg's guitar amp directly in front of me. And so, a fine forty-five minute set with all the usual highlights, including again the very fine new song ("what they said is true") heard at the Opera House show.⁵ By the time he hit the home stretch of "We're in a Thunderstorm" (again featuring Laura Barrett guesting on extra keybs) and "The Boyfriend Song" a different and, um, drunker crowd had pushed their way up to the front to engage in their own crazy dance party, one enthusiastic fellow even hopping up on stage to shake a leg. It's probably sort of the end of a cycle for Reg, and I imagine we might hear a bit less of him next year, recharging and building up some more new material, but I dearly hope he can maintain some of the momentum he's built up over the past while.

After the set, A. was headed outside for a smoke, and I joined him, just to get a breath of revivifying outside air. Which is how, with typical panache, I managed to miss all the excitement of midnight and the new year, heralded only by an unruly howl drifting over from the Brunswick House. Perhaps underwhelming, but I'm not one to set too much store on these kinds of celebration anyways. Better to just head back inside in anticipation of the next set.

"It's like Guelph invaded Toronto," Reg had noted from the stage — indeed true, considering that the Royal City provided us not only with himself and Jim Guthrie but also The Magic. Last time I saw 'em, I was admittedly feeling pretty punchy, as it was at the end of a day-long music-watching marathon, and I knew I'd need to have another go 'round to really suss 'em out. On this occasion, with a full set to fill, the band started a bit more on the soft side, with "Never Lock the Door" — a song which helps to tip their hand that their real genre is a revisitation of 70's smoothness filtered through 80's pop. But as soon as Geordie Gordon hit the falsetto part at the end ("I'll nevah lock the door!") he had the crowd onside and most such hair-splitting became redundant.

"I get stabbed in the heart every time I look at you," Gordon informed the audience — but that wasn't so much a statement of angsty songwriterly anguish but the result of sartorial insistence, a pin for his scarf being the culprit. Most of the other bandmembers were no less elegant — Sylvie Smith was in a sophisticated shimmery dress, but managed to not be the shiniest thing on stage when Evan Gordon's gold lamé cape was accounted for. Still, Smith is a key factor here, adding excellent backing vox throughout (especially, say, wrapping her part around Gordon's lead on "No Sound") and taking lead for showstopper "Call Me Up".⁶

The sophisticated, slick sound that the band is aiming for — especially in their big-band, horn-section-enabled live configuration — was demonstrated on a cover of Steely Dan's "Reelin' in the Years", wherein the guitarists did a respectable job of reproducing the snake-y lead lines, but Gordon couldn't quite nail the smoothness of Donald Fagen's vocal. A couple of the songs misfired, but given that one or two of those are holdovers from their earlier, less-expansive EP that's soon to be supplanted by a full-length, it may well be that some songwriting growth has already taken place. But the lesser material was outweighed by the good stuff, and the band has really nailed their own sound. Plus, their party-startin', dance-inducing devotion to the pleasure principle is pretty winning, even if I'm not entirely amenable to that kind of thing.⁷ A fine time, leaving no doubt why a lot of folks are calling this group one to watch in the coming months.

You can listen to the most fabulous thing in the set here, but then, so as to not give short shrift to the hard workin' Geordie Gordon, you can also check out some more here.

After that energy blast, nothing would make more sense than something mellow to ensure a gentle landing. Nothing better, then, than Mantler, master of melancholy and electric-piano soul. Playing in the cozier Southern Cross lounge, the room was pretty full (with many fellow musicians in attendance) and sweltering. Admirably backed by Matt McLaren's warm bass and Jay Anderson's loose-limbed drumming, the Steamboat duo provided just enough restrained colour to fill in the songs without distracting focus from the tuxedo'ed singer. Leading off with the counter-thematic "I Guarantee You a Good Time" ("you are talkin' to a guy who's never had a sad day in his life"), might seem strange coming from a guy whose between-song banter includes segues like, "continuing the theme of inner pain..." — but maybe nothing soothes an ache and makes you feel good like a sad song and someone else's misery.

Riffing on the change of year, Mantler strongly urged the audience to call it twenty-ten and not two-thousand and ten ("they didn't call it 'nineteen hundred and ten', did they?"), before taking an opportunity to riff on the film 2010.⁸ The trio grew stronger as the set moved along, essaying such fine tunes as "Shadows and Counterparts" and "Uphill Battle". Sadly, as they were starting to really cook, I was fading just as quickly. Still, when Steamboat guitarist Nick Taylor joined them for a couple numbers (including a funky run through The Spinners' "I'll Be Around") to close the set, I got enough of a boost to last it out.

I thought that might be it, but the crowd called out for an encore, and the band came back to send the crowd home with the cheery combo of "Lately I'm Sad" and Gil Scott-Heron's "Home is Where the Hatred is". I was beat as I dragged myself over to the extra-late-running subway, but a good way to ring in the new year.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ The only mild criticism that I could offer at this well-organized event is the absence of any female-fronted acts on the main stage.

² "I don't know why you guys aren't watching them," O'Regan commented, after asking if Gentleman Reg was in the room to join in on a song, before concluding he'd be in the other room. Sheezer, for thems sans ears to the ground, is the new all-star Weezer tribute band, whose ranks include Dana Snell, Laura Barrett, Alysha Haugen, Magali Meagher and Robin Hatch — a tremendously talented lot who would be worth listening to regardless of the circumstance. It looks like there's some murky video from what I was missing here.

³ His first album, 1999's A Thousand Songs, was the first release on the seminal Three Gut label, of which he was the very namesake.

⁴ The members of the band were:

Jordan Howard - guit

Samir Khan - bass

Shaw-Han Liem - keyb

Nathan Lawr - drums

Randy Lee - violin

Jeremy Strachan - reeds

Nick Buligan - brass

⁵ Didactic Reg-trackers should note that Jon Hynes was handling the bass this time round.

⁶ It was presented with all-star backing vox from Kelly McMichael (Gentleman Reg), Jess Tollefsen (Green Go), and Jonas Bonnetta (Evening Hymns).

⁷ If only there were some time of the year where it'd be appropriate to resolve to change that sort of thing about oneself.

⁸ "What the hell happened to Jupiter?" someone in the audience shouted at mention of the movie. "I know!" Mantler replied, as if astonished.