KULAS : TORONTO REVERB 25.3.04

Set List: Sweet Lips, Star Land, Pavement, All The Rage, Glasgow Rain, They Only Come Out At Night, Beginning of the End, Anyone Out There (solo acoustic), Anyone Else, Instamatic Camera.

Impromptu Encore: James Medley - Laid, Sit Down

Tuning and Talking

Kulas and band, Dead City Radio, returned to Toronto’s barn-like Reverb Club for their fist gig there in over a year and a half. As Kulas noted near the start of the hour long set, having played many gigs there earlier in his career, and having lived right down the street for a bit, tonight’s show was like returning home.

The coming home set list, like last month’s Rivoli gig, was comprised largely of newer not yet commercially released songs, such as the thundering Star Land and Glasgow Rain which tonight morphed back to the majestic tour de force of earlier performances.  New song, Sweet Lips, like other new set list addition They Only Come Out At Night, has a particularly hard edge with pounding guitars. Both songs are from the movie soundtrack work that Kulas has been doing over the past two years and the latter song certainly demonstrates its roots due to its rather repetitive format i.e. it would work well as the background to on screen action.  Sweet Lips is rather more distinctive and definitely a keeper.  I wonder whether they both will end up Kulas new CD American Cheerleader when it is released this summer.  And tonight’s set closer, Instamatic Camera was introduced as the intended lead single off the new album. 

Towards the end of the set Kulas gave the four members of the band the customary break and launched into an acoustic solo take of Anyone Out There, a song which he had only done once before just over a year ago at Toronto’s Oasis Club.  This song is of course featured on Katie Giffin’s first cd, which he also produced and played on.  Having heard both artists do this song I prefer Kulas’ go, as he is far more subtle and genuine in his delivery.  A great voice too.

Of course the night wouldn’t be complete without some touches of Kulas humour such as his self-congratulatory pronouncement that he can tune a guitar and talk to the audience simultaneously. 

Dead City Radio’s drums were far more up front tonight or maybe it was the crappy sound in the Reverb.   The rhythm section was tight. Guitarist Kevin is settling well with the band, adding different touches to newer songs such as Pavement as well songs from the last Kulas CD Another Small Machine like All the Rage (though it was often difficult to pick the bits out of the miserable audio pea soup that is sound in the Reverb).  Backing vocalist and keyboardist Olivia Pallenstein was great as always, adding some really nice synthesizer touches through the night in particular the encore medley. It’s a shame that Olivia’s vocals aren’t brought up a bit in the live mix.

Speaking of encores, Mike and band returned to the stage for a quite impromptu one at the end of the set.  After taking a few minutes trying to decide what to play, Kulas broke into the solo electric intro of Laid, with the band sorting out the changes amongst themselves as the song continued. The brief song really came across well, with a couple dozen of the audience (including the rhythm section of the dynamite opening act Sister Someone) moving from their seats to dance in front of the stage.  The full band delivery of the song was a first for Kulas and his voice had a real great Lennonesque quality to it. Well after the fact I realized that the sound of Laid tonight reminded me a lot of the great Beatles cover of Twist and Shout – wonderful jangly guitars and John Lennon’s voice pushing what could have been a pedestrian cover to the edge – that’s what happened tonight.  Maybe when that other band used to do Laid it had that Beatles feel to it and I never noticed before, but I don’t think so. Just as Laid ended the band went straight into Sit Down, at a far more laid back tempo than done before, but with the same overall sound as Laid and lotsa nice synth embellishments. What a powerful song. If there is a next time to these encores, Mike should let those in the audience who don’t know what his connection was to the authors of these songs.

Reflecting upon the night’s events, what I realized was that impromptu encore brought an element that was largely missing in the last few Kulas shows – a willingness to try something different on the fly and take a chance on the edge.  At this point, Kulas and Dead City Radio have a catalogue of over 20 songs that they have performed live.  Now’s the time to go into a show with a list of songs to choose from, go with the flow and mix things up on the fly. Dead City Radio has the talent to pull it off nine times out of ten. If you fall off the wall, what the fuck, you just get up, dust yourself off and try again.  The whole point is to have fun.

Anyway, Kudos to all involved tonight.