[ATTENDED: February 2, 2018] Steven Page
I was thrilled to see Steven Page play with Art of Time Ensemble back in 2015. When I saw that he was playing (somewhat) locally again, I was really excited to get tickets. It wasn’t until much later that I realized that he was doing a Songbook tour with the Art of Time Ensemble and not playing songs from his (excellent) solo albums.
That was fine, because I loved his Songbook release with AoT, but as always, I’d much rather see someone sing his or her own songs than covers. But Page had picked great songs for his album with AoT and he picked an even better selection for this show.
The ensemble came out on stage followed shortly after by Page. Steven explained that the purpose of the evening was that these songs were designed to have their vocal melodies remain largely unchanged but for the arrangers to push the boundaries of what these songs could sound like. To go as far as possible without going too far. He thought many people wouldn’t a lot of the songs but that this might inspire them to check out the originals.
They quickly began “Lion’s Teeth” by John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. He followed it by playing two Leonard Cohen songs. He said that Leonard Cohen was his favorite artist and one of the best Canadian songwriters. I’m a bit over Leonard Cohen at the moment–which is ironic because I have all his early discs from back when nobody listened to him. My favorite Leonard Cohen joke comes from The Young Ones: “NEIL: I won’t say anything because no one ever listens to me anyway. I might as well be a Leonard Cohen record.” But the two he played were great. I’m Your Man is sultry and sexy and “Famous Blue Raincoat” is just a beautiful song.
He followed this up with a recently dead Canadian singer–don’t worry, he said, this isn’t that kind of show. He paid a tribute to Gord Downie and then sang a great version of “Chancellor.”
Before the next song pianist and artistic director Andrew Burashko came out and whispered to Steven and they did a change. That was a real treat for me because they played a living songwriter whom Steven is very jealous of, John K. Samson and his great song about a cat (part of a trilogy) “Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure.”
He joked about this British band that he’s liked since he was kid before playing The Beatles’ “Girl” perhaps the least “impressive” song in the show, but a fun respite between dramatic set-pieces.
He played a song written by two living artists: himself and Craig Northey. They did Page’s wonderfully fun “A New Shore.” And I was really happy to hear one of his songs.
He said the next artist was a band so they couldn’t be dead, but they were dead to him. I assume it was a joke, but a few of us started laughing assuming he meant his former band, but he said oh no, he meant Radiohead. He did an amazing version of “Paranoid Android” with tremendous orchestration. I knew this from the record but seeing it in person gave me chills.
Then he took a short break so he could smoke and eat cheese and clog up his throat.
For the second set he picked up an acoustic guitar and began a hyper-dramatic version of Elvis Costello’s “I Want You.” When the song was over he gave the guitar back to guitarist Rob Piltch–who has played with Martin Tielli from Rheostatics in a number of situations–it was neat to see him in the flesh.
At one point he told us that he was using an iPad to follow along with the music–rather than actual sheet music. He was using a foot pedal to advance the pages (I wondered what kind of pedal that was). He said that he used to use a small mini but he could barely read it so now he has this big one, the iDad.
Then he did one more Leonard Cohen song. Fortunately it was not “Hallelujah,” which I never need to hear again, honestly. I love “A Singer Must Die” which is dark and snarky and very funny and which Page absolutely delivers on.
“Entourage” followed–another bouncy and fun Page song–yes it made me want to hear more from his solo albums.
Introducing “Ashes to Ashes” (one of my favorite Bowie songs), he described buying a Mexican copy of the album for $1–all the liner notes were in Spanish. I loved this version–the orchestra did a terrific job with the weird sounds and peculiar rhythms of the song.
This was followed by a song by Andy Maize of Skydiggers called “Anything for You.” Andy sang in the Sgt. Pepper’s tour with Page and Northey. This was the only song I didn’t know ahead of time. It was a sweet pop gem.
He then talked about another great living songwriter Jane Siberry. He joked that they should get government funding for this tour given how many Canadian artists there are. He asked if they had government funding and Andrew joked, yes, from Mexico. Between “I Want You” and “The Taxi Ride” there were some long, dramatic songs in this set.
He ended with one of my favorite bands and a song I love (and one he said he loves to sing). “Tonight We Fly” by The Divine Comedy. The original is already orchestrated so they didn’t change too much, but Page’s voice just soaring with the song. I especially loved watching violinist Stephen Sitarski really get into it–he was practically coming out of his seat.
He told us that that was the last song, but not the last song they knew, so maybe if we clapped really hard, he’d do another one.
The encore was “Brian Wilson.” And this time he re-used the joke about the band being dead to him (thanks for the set up earlier). I’ve seen BNL a number of times in recent years and they always do this song and do a fine job, but there is nothing like Steven Page singing it.
When the song ended, they started to leave and then Steven turned back and asked us “one more?” The second encore was a fun and very loose version of “Oh Darling” by the Beatles.
Incidentally, the venue was lovely and quite small. The sound was excellent (except when the heat went on or whatever that clanging thing was). However, for me the venue was about 90 minutes away and that just felt a little too far. I think the Mann Center might take longer to get to, but it would have to be a pretty special performer for me to go that far again.
- Lion’s Teeth*
- I’m Your Man
- Famous Blue Raincoat
- Chancellor
- Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure*
- Girl
- New Shore
- Paranoid Android*
- I Want You*
- A Singer Must Die*
- Entourage
- Ashes to Ashes
- Anything for You
- The Taxi Ride*
- Tonight We Fly*
- encore
- Brain Wilson
- Oh Darling
The ensemble:
Andrew Burashko, piano
Peter Lutek, woodwinds
Joseph Phillips, bass
Rob Piltch, guitar
Rachel Pomedli, cello
Stephen Sitarski, violin
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