KULAS TORONTO RANCHO RELAXO 22.6.02

Set List: A Clever Mess, Pavement, Having and Losing It All, Starland, Burning Down Hollywood, Glasgow Rain, The Only One, Shine, Hallelujah

Tonight, Michael Kulas made a short notice solo acoustic set appearance at Toronto's Rancho Relaxo, opening for Toronto band Mommy, featuring two former (temporary) members of Kulas' band.  The setting at Rancho Relaxo is intimate  - a great venue for an acoustic set, which Kulas took advantage of, delivering a near note perfect show, while at the same time providing a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere.

Highlights tonight included favourites such as (the yet to be released) Pavement, the Only One plus Having and Losing It All off his current cd Another Small Machine (ASM), and the great set closer (and unreleased) cover of Hallelujah.

Minor technical problems were a nuisance in the first portion of the set: some odd noises in the body of Kulas' acoustic guitar and the soundboard had the volume a bit too high resulting in some unwanted distortion through the p.a., and the amazing shrinking microphone.   As always, Kulas remained unruffled, and addressed the problems head on, with good humour and professionalism.  We sympathized, and what followed was a great show.

At one point, Kulas admitted to struggling to give the audience an entertaining anecdote between songs.  He told us about going to a local club to watch the England/Brazil world cup match at 2:30AM EST, noting how uncharacteristically well behaved the England fans were.  Oddly, no mention was made tonight of the just released live double cd by Kulas' former band James "Getting Away With It Live", which documents James' singer/lyricist Tim Booth's and Kulas' near final appearance with the uber-band. I was kind of hoping that Kulas would tip his hat to his former bandmates with a delivery of She's A Star or some such Jamesian delicacy - perhaps some other night. 

However, Kulas did grace us with his first public performance of the emotion-wrote ASM closer Shine - a natural for his acoustic set which I thought was quite notable in its absence over the past few months.

In addition to playing his longest acoustic set yet in Toronto (still too short for my tastes at nine songs in total), Kulas embellished his vocal delivery quite frequently with a more pronounced inflection.  This was reminiscent of a technique employed by one of my favourite vocalists, Peter Gabriel, who often goes even further and uses his voice as another instrument.  Perhaps Kulas has taken Brian Eno's advice of a few years ago to heart and started smoking again to colour his voice. Whatever the inspiration or cause, this vocal technique is definitely worth exploring further.

All said and told, I'm looking forward to hearing where Kulas takes this in his next local appearances.