GEOFF BERNER plays the Tranzac on Friday (April 15). See listing. Rating: NNNN
Nobody else sounds like Geoff Berner. The Vancouver musician mixes punk attack and rebellious vocals with klezmer instrumentation and sounds. His fifth full-length album is brash, confident and impeccably produced – huge-sounding and imaginative – with the Eastern European influences more pronounced than ever.
Whether or not you have a taste for clarinet-, accordion- and percussion-driven music, you can’t help but get caught up in Berner’s raw energy. His lyrics are in-your-face political (he tackles police violence and conservative Jewish culture with aplomb) but are delivered with just enough humour to keep the party rocking.
I Kind Of Hate Songs With Ambiguous Lyrics is flat-out punk rock, Oh My Golem! sees him go electronica, while Wealthy Poet is gorgeous Old World balladry.
Top track: I Kind Of Hate Songs With Ambiguous Lyrics
