I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 8, 2019] The New Pornographers

Back in 2000, The New Pornographers sprang out of Vancouver and I didn’t know anything about them.  Especially that the band was made up of all manner of Canadian musicians from other groups.  I only knew that the first single “Letter From an Occupant” was awesome and I listened to it all the time.

Over the last twenty years, The New Pornographers have released reliably excellent albums.  It often seemed like out of the blue, suddenly there was another amazingly catchy song from the band.  I’m not really sure why I never thought to see them live before.  I think missing the Neko Case show in January was an impetus to get me to the show if only to see her.  (Sometimes Neko doesn’t tour with them, so I’m pretty psyched she was here on this tour).

As often happens, when a band tours they have a new album out.  Somehow I had missed this new one entirely.  Of course, I needn’t have worried that it would be good, because of course it was.  I was just worried that I wouldn’t be familiar enough with the songs when they played them.

The lineup has remained remarkably consistent for a band made up of people who all have other bands that tour.  They’ve had a couple of drummers, but otherwise, no changes.  Except for one rather large one.  Dan Bejar, the fantastic lyricist and singer of the band Destroyer more or less officially left the band a couple of years ago. Although he is currently described as a former and possibly future member of the band. So no hard feelings.

I also happened to get tickets for the upcoming Destroyer tour, so I’ll be seeing Bejar soon enough anyway.

Of course, Carl (A.C.) Newman writes most of the songs, so aside from the few that Bejar sings which they didn’t play, this show was just chock full of hits.

The band came out and the stage set up was just perfect (parenthetically you can see just how many other bands these folks are involved with).  One the left side (closest to where I was) were lead guitarist Todd Fancey (of Limblifter) in the back and Blaine Thurier on keyboards up front.  Drummer Joe Seiders (Beat Club) was in the middle and then back on the right was bassist John Colllins (The Evaporators and Destroyer).

Then up front were the singers.  Right in front of me was Neko Case (who was in a few cuddlecore bands like Cub and Maow before going solo and Carl Newman (Superconductor, Zumpano and solo work) on acoustic and electric guitars.  Then on the far side were Simi Stone (Suffrajett) on violin and Kathryn Calder (Immaculate Machine) on keys.

What I loved about this set up was that while just about everybody sang, it was amazing to have four vocalists stretched across the stage all singing at the same time.  Having three backing singers for most of the female parts was like a wall of gorgeous sound.

Although the set was dominated by new songs (they played 7 of 11 from the new album), the set was twenty-five songs, so they played a little bit of everything.  Which was awesome.  I was actually a little bummed it was so light on songs from Whiteout Conditions, but that was their last tour so that makes sense.  And I absolutely cannot complain about song choices.

Nor could the guy near me.  He was SO INTO IT.  I like the band quite a lot but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say they were their favorite band or anything. But this guy was shouting out all the time including once during a lull between songs, “you guys are fucking awesome!”  Newman said, “Thanks.  I don’t know what to say to that.  How about, ‘You’re right.'”

I knew the set was going to be great as soon as they started playing.  The opening bassline to “Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile” is just fantastic–liquid and groovy and it sounded perfect.  And then Newman and Case sang together and their voices were spot on.  Then Neko took over lead and her voice sounded tremendous.

The crowd went nuts and then when Thurier played the harmonica intro to “Sing Me Spanish Techno” (a song which doesn’t actually have a harmonica intro in the recorded version, but the harmonica sounds fantastic), the crowd exploded.  Midway through the song all four singers sang along and it was the first time of many that I was blown away by their vocals.

It’s always great to be up close to watch a musician, so seeing Neko Case sing “You’ll Need a Backseat Driver” was pretty excellent.

Carl Newman has such a fine way with a melody.  None of their songs sound the same, but the band is instantly recognizable.   One of the great features of some of their songs comes at the beginning of “Dancehall Domine” when all of the singers do a kind of “bah bah bah” melody that sounds great.  That kind of vocal hocketing occurs in “The Surprise Knock” as well, which is fantastic.

Newman switched to an acoustic guitar for “My Rights Versus Yours” and I really got to hear his falsetto.

Since the band puts out albums kind of infrequently, I often forget some of their older songs.  “Crash Years” is one of my favorite of their songs (and I never remember the title), but when the shuffling riff started and they started singing that great melody, I had forgotten how much fun it would be when the whistling middle section started.

There were so many people on stage that it was hard to know who to watch.  But I enjoyed watching Simi Stone’s violin bow strings snap over the course of the show.

One of the best moments in the “The Laws Have Changed” (yet another fantastic song) was when I realized that Newman was doing the incredible high pitched “na na nas”–I couldn’t get over how good his voice sounded all night.

Before “Higher Beams” Newman said he wanted to let everyone know there was a bad word in this song and he wanted to warn everyone in case they’d never heard it before. The guy in front of me said “we just heard it from that guy over there a few minutes a go!”  “Higher Beams” is a pretty mellow song with a lot of violin.  The chorus is just great, quietly sung “Thank you.  Thank you for nothing. I didn’t want in” and after several choruses the final one changes to “Fuck you.  Fuck you for nothing. I didn’t want in” but the vocal change is subtle enough that you might actually miss it.

The early song “Testament to Youth in Verse” has this wonderful ending part where Newman sings “The bells ring no no no no (15 more nos.)  Slowly the rest of the band adds more nos at different times to flesh out an amazing vocal fugue melody.

Even though they didn’t play a lot from Whiteout Conditions, they did play the title song with that great vocal melody from Newman.

Neko sang lead vocals on “Champions of Red Wine.”  When Neko isn’t touring with them, Kathryn Calder fills in for most of her parts.  Calder’s voice is fantastic and sounds amazing.  She sang lead on “Play Money” and I was really impressed with how good it sounded.  I wonder if she’s kind of happy when Neko isn’t there and she gets more spotlight.  It was hard for me to see her since she was so far away, but here’s a little footage of her singing “All the Old Show Stoppers.”

Incidentally, Calder is Carl Newman’s niece.   Calder explained in a 2007 interview: “My mom was adopted as a baby and about ten years ago she found her birth family and Carl is in her birth family. At that time I was a teenager and playing in a band and didn’t really know I had that family … so that’s how I met Carl.”[5] possibly Play Money

It seems like every concert I see lately has a melodica and this one was no exception when Thurier played it on “The Bleeding Heart Show.”   I was impressed with how many things Thurier played and yet he was kind of hanging back.  As was Fancey–he was all but invisible to me but there were always these great guitar solos that I had to remember he was playing.

They ended the main set with one of their earliest catchy songs. “Mass Romantic” is such a great track with excellent backing vocals.

After the encore break they came back and played a slow song.  John Collins had such a great bass sound all night long.  But he was always behind someone–I could barely see him at all.  So it was nice when he came out front for the first encore song, “Challengers.”

Then Newman jokingly asked if we were ready to rock because all of the remaining songs were going to rock. I’m not exactly sure that “Moves” rocks, but, man, is it a good song, with not one but two separate amazing melodies and more great violin from Stone.

“Brill Bruisers” opens with more of that amazing vocals melody as everyone sang “Boh bah boh bah bah boh” as a well of melody while Newman sang lead.  And I can’t leave out the greatness of the “oooh” part at the end of the clip.

I really didn’t know if they would play “Letter from an Occupant”  I hadn’t looked at any setlists to check.  After “Bruisers,” Newman said that they just started playing a song again. It was their first hit.  Holy cow I freaked out because I’ve loved this song for nearly 20 years and never thought I’d hear it live

I actually filmed the whole song, something I never do. And so here it is broken up into four parts.

“Letter from an Occupant” Part 1—Part 2—Part 3—Part 4.

It was an amazing ending to a fantastic show.  I can’t wait to hear what the put out next.

SETLIST

Can the Can [Suzi Quatro taped intro]

1. Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile ♠
2. Sing Me Spanish Techno ‰
3. You’ll Need a Backseat Driver ♠
4. Dancehall Domine ß
5. My Rights Versus Yours ¢
6. Crash Years ⊗
7. The Surprise Knock ♠
8. Avalanche Alley ϖ
9. The Laws Have Changed €
10. Higher Beams ♠
11. One Kind of Solomon ♠
12. Testament to Youth in Verse €
13. Leather on the Seat ♠
14. Whiteout Conditions ϖ
15. Champions of Red Wine ß
16. All the Old Showstoppers ¢
17. Adventures in Solitude ¢
18. Colossus of Rhodes ♠
19. Play Money ϖ
20. The Bleeding Heart Show ‰
21. Mass Romantic ®
    encore
22. Challengers ¢
23. Moves ⊗
24. Brill Bruisers ß
25. Letter from an Occupant ®

♠ In the Morse Code of Break Lights (2019)
ϖ Whiteout Conditions (2017)
ß Brill Bruisers (2014)
⊗ Together (2010)
¢ Challengers (2007)
‰ Twin Cinema (2005)
€ Electric Version (2003)
®Mass Romantic (2000)