Neko Case & Corb Lund Band @ Harbourfront Center 07/07
I met up with a friend to see Neko Case, with Corb Lund opening, at the Harbourfront Center last Thursday. Harbourfront is an outdoor venue, and the weather was postcard perfect for an evening concert.
I thought before the show, and still do, that Corb Lund was an odd match with Neko Case. They're both in the tent, for sure, but they're not exactly rubbing elbows in the crowd. Taken separately they were both good shows. Taken together, well, there was an intermission between them for a reason.
Corb Lund plays a certain brand of cocky up on stage and he manages to make it work. His patter is as amusing as his lyrics, and his voice almost as good as his dimples. The band he's got behind him is tightly rehearsed and talented as hell. Which makes it a shame how poorly they got used through a lot of the show.
Singing the first half of the song with just your own guitar accompanying you and then having the band come crashing in was, at some point, an interesting arrangement. It might still be an interesting arrangement. Until it's used for four consecutive songs in the same show. Then it just leaves you scratching your head as to why he'd leave that talented band standing around scratching their asses for a third of every song.
It'd been somewhat less than a month since I'd last seen Neko, and a little over three since I'd last seen her in front of the Sadies, so I thought I had a pretty good idea what to expect. It was largely the same set she brought to Twangfest, despite the presence of the Sadies, and not much in the way of the rawk. She was in a damn site better mood than she was in St Louis, so that, at least, made for a much better show.
It was not a mind blowing set, about an average set for Neko, but then, average Neko is well above average.