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Concert reviews Music

New songs, same great banter at Jim Bryson’s show at the Burdock


JIM BRYSON at The Burdock, Thursday, February 25. Rating: NNNN


The late crowd at Jim Bryson’s Toronto launch for Somewhere We Will Find Our Place were treated to a relaxed, limbered up, rocking set, along with a handful of jokes about early versus late shows (the band had played a 7 pm set earlier). “An early show is so that you can go home and then watch a show on TV after,” Bryson quipped, adding a CD release show is a rare license to play new songs no one knows yet, kind of like inviting everyone to a party and then saying, “it’s twenty bucks.”

In this case, it was well worth it. The songs off Somewhere We Will Find Our Place burst from the small stage, with drummer Peter Von Althen and bassist Philippe Charbonneau working overtime, Good Lovelies’ Caroline Brooks singing backup vocals, Dave Draves on guitar and keys and producer Charles Spearin on lead guitar and a bit of fugelhorn. Most of the tunes benefited from this louder, more frenetic treatment, with The Depression Dance, Changing Scenery, Ontario and Breathe in particular sounding meatier live than on record. The only real victim of this momentum was Stuck In The Middle, which lost some of its sweet mellowness.

Bryson bookended the new songs with fan favourites, including a number off 2007’s Where The Bungalows Roam and Wild Folk, from The Falcon Lake Incident (Bryson’s 2010 collaboration with the Weakerthans). He also pulled out Sleeping In Toronto, a cover of Echo And The Bunnymen’s Bring On The Dancing Horses and a funny, deconstructed version of Harry Nilsson’s Everybody’s Talking (the sole hit, apparently, at a 60th birthday party he’d played).

It’s a credit to the new songs that even amongst some of Bryson’s best material and fun covers, melodies like that of Sweeping, Pt. 2 stay with you into the next day.

music@nowtoronto.com | @sarahegreene 

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