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Concert reviews Music

Why I want to be k.d. lang when I grow up

case/lang/veirs at the Danforth Music Hall, Tuesday, August 16. Rating: NNNNN


There’s something wonderfully casual about the case/lang/veirs collaboration starring k.d. lang, Neko Case and Laura Veirs, and that comes across more in a live setting than on their eponymous collaborative album.

At the first of two sold-out Danforth Music Hall shows, the musical powerhouses looked relaxed, happy and kinda rumpled in their end-of-tour clothes, shaking out their limbs and making each other laugh during and between songs, a sense of camaraderie coming through as strongly as their incredible voices.

Voice – specifically three-part harmony – is the project’s focal point in concert. Each singer has a style and sound all her own – lang’s resonant and dramatic, Case’s full-bodied and forlorn, Veirs’s sweet and searing – and the spotlight was shared equally between all three as they took turns singing lead throughout the set. Those voices also blended exquisitely, particularly on Veirs’s stripped-down I Can See Your Tracks, where the four-piece band (sounding great all night) got quiet, allowing the Portland indie folk musician and her guitar to lead the way.

Despite the democratic approach, as the show wore on, lang commanded more and more of our attention, even when she was in the shadows singing backups. Yes, there’s her voice, which raised the hair on our arms during a cover of Neil Young’s Helpless and earned the group a standing ovation midway through the show. 

But there’s also the joy she exudes. Flushed cheeks, huge smile, goofy little dances, unshakeable confidence, total respect for the band, who she interacted with during every instrumental break. When she picked up a banjo for Sorrow Nevermore, we were on our feet again and pushing to the front of the stage, proving the point lang had made in her pre-song intro that the instrument is a “chick magnet.”

A sped-up Man, from Case’s 2013 album, found the trio at their most energetic (lang moved around like a boxer in the ring), Georgia Stars had Veirs on her knees, headbanging and thrashing her guitar around, lang’s Constant Craving sent an excited gasp through the crowd, and a cover of Patti Smith’s People Have The Power during the second encore not only proved case/lang/veirs know their fan base but also reinforced the optimistic feeling that had crept in during the almost two-hour set. 

It’s a generous project on many levels, and we left grateful and uplifted – and wanting to be k.d. lang when we grow up.  

carlag@nowtoronto.com | @carlagillis

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