Early on in the Barenaked Ladies January 21st concert at the Jubilee Auditorium, singer Ed Robertson was talking about hitting the Bobsled track at COP earlier in the day with gold medalist Helen Upperton. The experience he said made him want to try skeleton, or luge - luge being the feet first option.
"Because if you blow something at 130km an hour you want to have your feet out to brace yourself" he said, prompting Kevin Hearn to quip "that's what she said."
It is in part this quick wit among all four members of the ladies – drummer Tyler Stewart and bassist Jim Creegan round out the group – which has made them one of the best Canadian bands over their 25 year career. They could tour an improv comedy show and still sell out the Jubilee, as they did this tour.
While the comedy was frequent – talking about The Wizard of Oz and Ed flubbing a line to "a tub of Australians" became ongoing jokes – music was the reason why we were there and the boys covered the span of their career as well as several songs from the current album Grinning Streak.
"Many of you probably don't realize we have a new album," Robertson said when setting up a sing along for Gonna Walk from the new album. "Look around. Those that aren't singing are the racists."
It wasn't much of a challenge to get the audience to sing along and in some cases dance to classic BNL like Pinch Me, Brian Wilson, Easy and the theme song to Big Bang Theory. The band really shined when they stripped things down for a 4 song acoustic set. By the time things rolled to One Weekand If I had $1,000,000 everyone was reliving their favourite memories from the band's career. Adding another touch of humor, the main set was a medley of current hits like Katy Perry's Roar, Avicii's Wake Me Up, Mackelmore's Can't Hold Us, Jay Z's Holy Grail, Lourdes Royales and Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball. The encore featured Tyler Stewart frantically running around the stage singing Alcohol and wrapped things up with a cover of Led Zepplin's Whole Lotta Love. For some reason Old Apartment was cut from the set. As entertaining as the covers were, it was missed.
It has been 5 years since co-singer Steven Page left the group and finally Barenaked Ladies has re-established themselves without the feeling of something missing. Two great albums and a continued rabid fan base around the world ensures that the Barenaked Ladies will continue to be around cracking jokes and making music for a long time to come. On the list of "must-see Canadian bands" the ladies remain one of our best. So if you have not seen them live, make sure you take advantage when they return. You won't regret it.