KULAS : TORONTO RIVOLI CLUB 16.5.03

Setlist: Anyone Else, Star Land, Instamatic Camera, Glasgow Rain, Having and Losing It All (solo acoustic), Shine (solo acoustic), Beautiful Day, Pavement, All The Rage, There's Nothing Wrong Interlude (aka a mellow break while you change your guitar strap), Beginning of the End, Encore: Sit Down

Hitting the stage after doing an introductory 45 minute set supporting Katie Griffin at her cd release party, Kulas and the newly named Dead City Radio were in fine form tonight.  The set list tonight essentially introduced nothing new - mostly songs from the last few Kulas performances.  But the band was clicking.  Olivia Pallenstein sounded great in her role of backing vocalist and keyboardist, adding needed colour at the right moments.  New guitarist Kevin was a lot more comfortable in his second live performance with the band.  Of particular note, a new lady drummer debuted with band - wow she was good. Not only bringing in a lot of enthusiasm with her, she provided a lot of bottom end to the sound (adding some needed variety to the often overamped bass guitarist) - I hope this wasn't a one off and she stays.

Kulas was in fine form tonight as an entertainer - joking a lot more through out the set than the audience has heard in a long time and chatting between songs.  We got impersonations of scotsmen in intros to various songs (including the obvious one to power rocker Glasgow Rain - but what about those cornsnakes?) as well as late night tv ads to encourage us to buy Katie Griffin cd's at the door.  We got to hear the rehearsal hall tale of "how many more songs 'til freedom". Perhaps the highlight of the night was when Kulas asked guitarist Kevin to play something, "hmm mellow", while he changed guitar straps so he could use the infamous big ugly white guitar in standard set closer and great rocker Beginning of the End.  The ensuing guitar solo developed into a four minute long moody blues jam with the whole band and an adhoc closing vocal chorus claiming "there's nothing wrong".  Nice touch.

All that said, despite the good fun and spirits, Kulas vocals were on occasion ragged and strained tonight.  If he had done much in the way of backing vocals during the night's opening set behind Katie Griffin that would have been understandable. But in fact Olivia Pallenstein had done the vast majority of the backing vocals with Katie. Case in point, during Kulas' typical two song acoustic mini-set in the first portion of the night, while trying to decide which song to do he begged off doing the requested frequent show closer (and vocal chord stretcher) Hallelujah, promising to do it later. Well later never came for Hallelujah, despite fan demands (bordering on harassment) through the night. Hopefully the difficulty with vocals is a passing affliction, like a cold, which will correct itself with time.

Not to disappoint, getting back on the stage for a single encore (and night closer after a relatively short 50 minute set), Kulas teased the audience (who were demanding Hallelujah) saying they were "gonna try something we've never done before (not entirely true- Kulas did this song about a year ago at Toronto's Clintons). It's a cover of a song a few of you might know but most won't (I hate to say he was right)". With that Kulas broke into his thrash rock take of James classic Sit Down.  Imagine The Ramones or Generation X (anybody remember either of them?) having a go at it and you have a good sense as to how it sounded.  With that Kulas and Dead City Radio said goodnight to a room of fans screaming for more. Nice close to a good if too short night.