Simply astounding live set from Dan Mangan. This took place about 4 days after the Polaris Prize Gala where Dan had been nominated for album of the year. I was familiar witha few of his songs from Radio3, but had never had the chance to see him live.The venue was great. The week before I had been to a Wolf Parade concert in the same building, but this concert took place in the Parterre which is a much smaller room off the back. There were about 20 tables set up with candles and it had a very initmate vibe (I think in total there were about 40 people there. Considering he plays to over 5000 in Canada, it was great to see him in Basel). When I first arrived I met the hostess/programmer for the Parterre whose name was Andrea and who was from Victoria, BC as well. I gathered later on that she had met Dan a few years back (apparently at a strip club, this statement generated about 3 minutes of jokes from various band members...) and so when he came through on his European tour, he agreed to play Basel.
The Mountains and the Trees was the opening act and although at times it can be a much larger collective, last night we had Jon Janes playing solo. It was a good set and refreshing in terms that Jon told a load of stories (many about growing up, living and eventually leaving small town Newfoundland) to accompany his songs. He joked that it should be billed stories and music with Jon Janes, but I found it really nice maybe because I miss the banter at most shows in Switzerland and I enjoyed hearing some Canadian tales. The only downside to his set was that some gear malfunctioned during Up & Down which was the finale of his set and is my favourite of his songs.
Dan Mangan was outstanding. His music is often described as definitive Canadian acoustic singer-songwriter (to which I agree his contibution continues the great Canadian tradition), but his songs are often more that that, easily flowing between slower more touching ballads and foot-stomping, upbeat tunes. The lyrics are great and in its entirety the album flows superbly. His stage presence was excellent and I appreciated that the other members of the band had a voice and involved themselves in the banter (including a hilarious, falsetto fill-in for the female duet on The Indie Queens Are Waiting). There was also a double bass involved, a fact I am always appreciative of. He played through the majority of songs on his album Nice, Nice, Very Nice including Sold, Road Regrets (that's a lot of coffee) and Basket (my sentimental favourite from the album). He of course finished with Robots and even managed to get the generally reserved Swiss crowd singing along with him as they spread out across the room (and flanked us...). A great show and is one of the best I have seen in Europe so far.
#39 That one really nice guy at work
13 hours ago
