I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: June 18, 2024] Trans-Canada Highwaymen

I was pretty thrilled when the “supergroup” of Trans-Canada Highwaymen formed.  I put that word in quotes because it’s likely that some (mostly non-Canadian) people don’t know half of the band.  But I was thrilled to have a guy from four terrific bands pooling themselves together.  And the fact that they were basically covering 70s AM radio hits was just a weird bonus.

I assumed they’d never tour the States.  But when they announced a show in Philly, I grabbed a ticket immediately.  I had no idea if it would sell well (it didn’t, really), but it there was a decent crowd and the people who were there were psyched (some a little too psyched).

There was no opening act.

We had seats in the third row (there were open eats in front of us).  But the row right in front of us was filled with about eight real keen Canadians who were crazy drunk and very loud.   It’s possible only we were bothered by them but I found them more annoying than fun.

But that’s fine, because the music was fantastic.

I’ve said before that I could listen to Steven Page sing anything.  So, having him start with an old BNL song was really fun.  It started with Steven and Craig Northey (from Odds) on guitar Moe Berg (from The Pursuit of Happiness) on bass and Chris Murphy (from Sloan) on drums.

By the end of the night everyone had played drums for at least two songs.

I had assumed it was going to be all of the songs from the album and maybe one or two songs from each band, but they surprised me with a big hit from Odds (“Someone Who’s Cool”-#41 in the US, #2 in Canada)) and then one of TPOH’s hits (the only had one hit in the US, but had several charted singles in Canada).

I assumed a Sloan song was next, especially since Chris Murphy came up to song.  But instead they jumped to some of the 70s covers and played “Lovin’ You Ain’t Easy.”  Many of these songs are interesting because they were hits here but I have no idea who sang them (it wasn’t important back then).  So I’ve never heard of Michel Pagliaro.

Steven and Chris are natural frontmen with witty banter at the ready.  Craig and Moe are a little quieter although when they get going their experience shows as well. But Steven and Chris were bouncing jokes off of each other all night.

The Trans-Canada Highwaymen theme was written by Steven and is a fun story about the evolution of the group.  Then it was back to the various bands songs.  “It Falls Apart” from Odds (#1 in Canada) and then a song I was super duper crazy excited by.  “Jane” is an old BNL song that I have always loved. It was great to hear it–and the backing vocals were perfect.

Moe sang a song from Lighthouse (this song I probably knew the least on the record as well).  And then Chris finally sang a Sloan song.  I wonder why there were fewer Sloan songs?  I guess his band is probably the most popular down here (excepting BNL, but Steven’s not in BNL anymore).  It was fun hearing Underwhelmed and seeing Chris jump int the audience and high five people.

There was a funny story about April Wine (who I only know from an 80s MTV song).  I didn’t know this song from the old days.  There was an even longer story about The Guess Who and how Burton Cummings has removed all Guess Who songs from the list of songs that people can cover.  All because other members of the band are trying to play the songs live.  But Cummings gave T-CH the rights to play “Undun.”  They are technically the only band allowed to play this song right now. And of course, Steven nailed it.

After the TPOH song “She’s So Young,” Chris played “The Other Man” (with Steven on drums) After the show we were talking to all four of the guys and Chris said that “Underwhelmed” and “The Other Man” are the songs he is most known for.   I never would have guessed that about The Other Man which I’ve always thought was a deep cut.

They played “The Old Apartment” (with Moe on drums).  This song is great to be sure, but a little overplayed for my tastes.  The folks in front of me disagreed though as they all stood up, yelled why isn’t everyone dancing and then proceeded to dance all over the place.

It was perhaps a little odd to play it so early in the set as there were a couple more songs before the encore break. I loved hearing Odds’ “Make You Mad” and they had a lot of fun jamming the song because they threw in a medley of other rocking Canadian songs like “Sunglasses at Night” all played to the same beat and chord structure.

And the set ended with “Brian Wilson.”  I have to admit that I could go without hearing this song at at BNL-adjacent show, but it is a great song and a lot of fun.

They took a short encore break and started playing “Rock Me Gently” (which they acknowledge sounded a lot like “Sugar, honey honey.”

One of my wife and I’s favorite Sloan songs is “The Rest of My Life” and when I saw that they were playing this one, I knew that she had to come with me to the show (she originally didn’t want to go).

And they ended with “I’m an Adult Now.”  Back in college I used to play this song almost every week, and I assumed I’d never hear it love.  So it was a bit of a dream of come to have this song end the set.

After the show all four guys were hanging out by the merch and we were able to briefly chat with each one.  We probably could have gotten home about 30 minutes earlier, but it was fun to chat with each of these guys who have made so much music that I’ve enjoyed over the years.