Ever had that feeling you’ve forgotten something? Maybe you’ve left the house and forgotten to put something on?
“Good evening Leeds. We’re Half-Naked!” was the greeting from Barenaked Ladies lead singer, Ed Robertson. Missing two of their regular 4 piece lineup (due to COVID), Ed and drummer Tyler Stewart have decided to carry on with the tour as a 2 piece playing a stripped back acoustic set.
Reworking a 19 song set at short notice to create this is a testament to their musicianship. Ed and Tyler were as tight as you’d expect a long-standing band to be. A crystal clear understanding between the two along with acoustic guitar and tight harmonies meant that (in a way, and with no disrespect to Kevin and Jim) they created a pretty complete sound.
“Half naked” they may have been, but as Ed said, it came with “100% heart and 200% effort” and the capacity crowd were lapping it up. The band were clearly enjoying themselves, giving it everything and getting it back from the audience in spades.
You always fear that when a band has such a standout hit as One Week some of the crowd might be looking at their watches, waiting for that song to turn up. This was quite the opposite…a committed crowd, in vintage merch some of whom had brought their kids with them…fully invested in every song.
The set was a mix of old and new and has changed throughout the tour. It means there are one or two surprises along the way.
BNL are on the road with their new album Detour de Force and 4 of the tracks from this evening were taken from the new record. The standout from the new songs was Flip, benefiting from enthusiastic audience participation.
There are a lot of stories, some great back and forth between Ed and Tyler, a thank you to the communities and health professionals who brought us through Covid (as a precursor to the uplifting Looking Up) and a very funny nod to those sitting in the ‘balcony’, complete with Statler and Waldorf references from the Muppets.
Those most familiar songs – One Week, Big Bang, It’s All Been Done? They came and went and to be honest were not the highlight of the show that I thought they might have been. That came instead from the 1992 track If I Had $1,000,000. It incorporated a word-perfect call and response between band and audience and took the roof off the end of the main set.
If I had one criticism, it was probably the encore. The quirky Drawing on which Tyler took lead vocals on was fun and welcomed by the crowd, but I felt the final number Tonight I Fell Asleep At The Wheel cast a slightly downbeat note on what had been a jumping main set.
Altogether though, this was a tour de force in support of Detour de Force. Well worth an evening with the makeshift 2 piece, and definitely worth catching up with them again once they are back and “fully naked”
Set list:
New Disaster
Odds Are
Old Apartment
Gonna Walk
Falling for the First Time
Good Life
It’s All Been Done
Flip
Blame It On Me
Toe to Toe
Live Well
Brian Wilson
Lookin’ Up
Pinch Me
Big Bang Theory
One Week
If I Had $1,000,000
———-
Drawing
Tonight, I Fell Asleep At The Wheel
