Dr. Ew (Steven McKay)
Soundscapes. Tuesday, November 23, 2010.
Down to Soundscapes for a double-header album release celebration with two overlapping bands sharing a tour. First up was Steven McKay, playing with a different lineup than when I'd seen him before, here backed with a rhythm section of Spencer Cole (drums) and Mike Le Riche (of The Darcys, bass) plus a pair of backing vocalists (Allie Hughes and Alex Samaras). Probably best known for his work as the drummer in the rollicking Bruce Peninsula, on stepping up with his own songs, McKay is more of a smooth-voiced singer-songwriter.
Crooning "Ignite" to start things off, McKay presented a set of songs drawn from his recently-released self-titled effort. He was clearly excited to be playing at Soundscapes: "this is totally the best thing that's ever happened to me," he said, before pausing to add, "except for getting married. [beat] And having cats." And if that sounds like hyperbole (even with the qualifications), he followed it up with a story about randomly meeting Leslie Feist at the previous time he'd played an in-store here with Bruce Peninsula.
Top marks, then, for his engaging banter and slightly off-beat stage presence. Perhaps reining it in a bit in the more intimate surroundings of the record store, he did have a slightly more serious deportment than that last time I saw him — so even though he was still starting songs with Springsteen-esque count-ins, here he was just whispering them to himself like little mantras instead of belting them out. His unassuming manner goes well with the songs, which are earnest little creations. Handled wrongly, they could have a fatal lack of pretense — songs about the quotidian pleasures of doing the dishes can easily be as dull as, well, doing the dishes — but the arrangements and musical collaboration are what makes this memorable.
That's especially true with the backing vocals, which substantially elevate this material. On "Restore Me", Allie Hughes' vocals give the song the tinge of an old country number, and the utterly sweet, heart-on-sleeve madrigal "Emma Comes Home" shows how something ridiculous and common (love, say, or fa-la-las) can suddenly burst out with vividness.
After keeping the mood chill with "Slow Down" (McKay acknowledging the song's new video), the band went out on an upbeat note with "Of All the Places" — and here, McKay finally allowed himself to belt out his Springsteen-esque count-in.
Listen to a song from this set here.
The other half of the in-store featured Dr. Ew, the nom de guerre of Drew Smith, fondly remembered as a member of beloved local combo The Bicycles. And this set would surely elicit a surge of excitement from any Bicycles fan, as Smith's backing band for this show included his old bandmates Andrew Scott (guitar) and Dana Snell (drums). The group was rounded out by Mike Le Riche, remaining from the previous set.1
Celebrating the release of his rather fab Gadzooks album, the set started off with album opener "The House of Many Mansions" and bounced along from there. Just as The Bicycles' songs were quick bursts of sugar-coated goodness, Smith's new material zips past in a hurry — this set was quicker than McKay's before it, but packed in more songs owing to Smith's characteristic brevity. Having Steven McKay on hand meant that the two vocalists could recreate their duet "If You're Happy", with McKay's rich, deep tones contrasting to Smith's higher register. On a couple more ("I'm Getting Fat" and "No More Space") the performance was agreeably loose and rangy before Smith closed this out with the quieter ballad "Let's Make It Legitimate".
Because so much of Smith's métier is, frankly, a little goofy (from his stage name to that album title down to some of his subject matter) it's easy to write this all off as trite bubblegum piffle. But that would miss the best parts of what's going here. First and foremost, this is really well-crafted material. And there's a general tendency to discount music that is cloaked in signifiers of giddy goofiness (instead of, say, impassioned anguish) as though that were somehow less meaningful. Well, cheer up Sleepy Jean — this is the good stuff here.
Listen to a song from this set here.
1 This might have been a bit of a one-off lineup — in a couple subsequent times I've seen Smith perform since this hasn't been reprised.
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