KULAS TORONTO OASIS LOUNGE 10.4.03

Set List: A Clever Mess, The Only One, Pavement, Starland, Anyone Out There, Shine, Eatin' Beets in Madoc (truncated), Having and Losing It All, Laid, Hallelujah, Encore: Glasgow Rain.

Gone from spinning with a four piece band at Mississauga's Hershey Centre in February to stripped solo acoustic at Toronto's Oasis Lounge - a daring event, being stripped, in the unseasonably cold weather we've had the past two weeks in Toronto (gawd - we still have snow covered by ice on the streets).  To go for the obvious cliché, Kulas delivered a warm, enthusiastic set to break the spring ice.

This was Kulas' first full acoustic set in 2003, and the first one since last June's almost next door at the Rancho Relaxo club. These Kulas acoustic sets are always a pleasure - typically intimate and injected with relaxed good humour.  The small square black room was filled with many of the usual 3F suspects (fans, friends, family) and the handful of latecomers were forced to sit in the sofas surrounding the stage (sorta of like what happens when you show up late for a lecture - funny thing human nature).  The longer than usual setlist was essentially a compendium of the Toronto acoustic shows that I've had the pleasure of experiencing since Michael's return to the city last year after seven years with UK favs James: personal favourites such as The Only One and Shine off second Kulas cd Another Small Machine (ASM), and new unreleased songs like Pavement and Starland.

All that said, the night had in store a few surprises in both the audience and the set list. In the course of premiering the literally brand new Kulas tune "Anyone Out There", Michael introduced us to Katie Griffin.  Kulas has produced Griffin's soon to be released cd which includes this tune -go to Katie's website (http://www.katiegriffin.com/mp3/anyone.htm) if you want to hear her version of the song.  I was half expecting Kulas to invite Ms. Griffin to the stage to vocally contribute in the live christening of "Anyone Out There" but it didn't happen. Well maybe we'll have the pleasure at next Thursday's Kulas set at Toronto's legendary El Mocombo club (witness to appearances by Elvis Costello, the Rolling Stones etc) or certainly at the Katie Griffin cd release party at Toronto's Rivoli in May, when Kulas' band will be behind her.

Later in the set's light hearted segment, when we weren't being exhorted to talk amongst ourselves during guitar tuning, we got an off the cuff verse of folkie tune "Eatin' Beets in Madoc". Surprises didn't end there as later in the set, Kulas mused that he use to play in a band and people wondered why he never covered any of the band's songs.  With that, Kulas continued his April tradition of doing a James tune (last April he did a full band version of "Sit Down" at Toronto's Clinton's) and graced us with a soaring take of "Laid".  Those of us prone to over analysis will note that there is a four year gap between the original release dates of those two James songs - perhaps Michael will continue with that pattern and have a go at "She's A Star" next April (or how about going back to the future at doing it next week at the Elmo).  And as we continue down the path of overanalyzing, almost exactly four years ago Kulas did "Laid" in an acoustic duo gig with James singer Tim Booth in a charity event at the Bolton Octagon.

OK well back at the gig, changes through the night weren't just limited to new songs in the set list but also included subtle changes to often performed songs. For instance, opening song "A Clever Mess" did not have the same Hispanic feel to the introductory instrumental section; and the lyrics to a number of songs, such as ASM's "Having and Losing It All" and even "Hallelujah", continued to evolve. 

The final surprise of the night was the audience's success in persuading Kulas to stay for a genuinely unplanned encore ("But I don't know anything else;") take of the yet to be released crowd favourite "Glasgow Rain".  It was a real nice close to a fun night.  Now back to this pattern of fours.