In-store: Daniel, Fred and Julie

Daniel, Fred and Julie

Soundscapes. Monday, April 26, 2010.

Out on a Monday night for an in-store at Soundscapes to revisit a band that I'd seen just a week-and-a-half previously. That this one was a freebie helped, but their full show had been a good enough time to warrant this extended encore.¹ And indeed, there was a pretty full house (er, store) on hand checking this out. It felt even fuller with everyone sitting down — good for sightlines, but hard on these old bones.²

Definitely a looser vibe throughout this set. With the trio more crammed together, there was a more ragged-but-true sound. At first with the shared vocal mic right in front of Julie, her voice was a little on top of everyone else's, but moving it a step further out mostly balanced things out. The set this time started, just like at the Horseshoe show, with "The Gambler and His Bride" and "Runner"³, the opening salvo from the Daniel, Fred and Julie album. But obviously this material isn't entirely rote to the performers, as they stumbled over a line in "I Dream of Jeanie" and had to pause to look at each other and get back on the same page as the crowd had a laugh. Little bumps like that aside, it was good to hear these voices blending together. All told, we got more than enough to justify having come down, even as the audience tried to cajole more songs from the band.

"They don't all translate live," Doiron said, a little apologetically — on account of all the lyrics to be remembered and all that. This somehow sidetracked the band into an on-stage discussion on the merits of JCVD (agreed by all to be a quality film) during an extended discussion on what should be the last song.

"Focus!" someone in the audience somewhat-joshingly chided.

Doiron looked up and into the crowd. "Oh look! A Sappy shirt!" she commented, immediately distracted, before noting, "I can't focus." So, even without without the miniature solo excursions from each of the members colouring in around the musical edges, we still got a chance to witness the personality of the musicians a little bit. And with a half-dozen selections from the album played, we heard nearly as much from it as we did at the full show, both ending with the hauntingly beautiful "Your Love". As always, it's a treat that we have a place like Soundscapes to host intimate shows like this.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ I shan't rehash my introduction to this partnership between Daniel Romano, Fred Squire and Julie Doiron — do check out my notes for the Horseshoe gig for more details.

² On the day that I fall over, legs asleep, after attempting to stand up at the end of one of these in-stores, I hope the fresh-faced youths around me will take pity and not, say, put the boot in while crooning "Singin' in the Rain".

³ Romano's "Runner" would be one of the only two non-traditional songs in the setlist for this show. And for those keeping track at home, "Bonnie Black Bess", "Clementine", and "Johnny Sands" from the album have not made it into the setlist yet.