We will, we will, rock you

Comment I imagine I overheard leaving tonight's concert:

"Dude! And then they broke into a really slammin' version of the ending of McCartney's 'My Love' like they were Guns 'n' Roses, only the singer was like freakin' Pavorotti! Man!"

Who might that be?

I knew it was going to be a good show. Pam & I were taken to a concert as a Christmas present by the virtual daughter Michaelle and her husband Randy, and the band is a fave of theirs.

We knew it would be a good show. We had heard a lot of the music before, and they sounded really great, creative, polished, but with a sense of humor, so we knew it would be a good show.

I even blogged about their wonderful Christmas album 2 years ago here.

We had no idea. I mean, we had no idea at all it would be the best show we had seen in a long time.



Presenting the Barenaked Ladies.

Look, every band and musician has their own Kool-Aid drinkers, the rabid devotees who jumped on the bandwagon early, likely for good reason: the music spoke to them.

For these guys, I have to confess I thought of them mostly as a novelty band, and certainly they have a wicked sense of humor which they're not afraid to display. But there's more, so much more to these guys than "One Week" and some of the other funny tunes. The word that keeps coming into my mind is "competence".

Pam suggested that that was 'damning with faint praise'. But it's really not. It means they are good at every aspect of what they do. These guys have listened to a lot of music, from '50s through now, and have remembered everything they ever heard. They write hard rocking pieces that might have been written by AC/DC, followed by power ballads that Journey would have written and recorded if they were, you know, actually good.

And the thing is, they do it without irony or ego, just with talent. There's no pompousness or posing, except in fun. Thus, they skewer many of the bands they quote, by doing similar music stylings, but in an earnest manner.

Here's more:



And I had no idea that Steve Page was the actual star of the band. With a voice that could stand up with Freddie Mercury's and soul skills reminiscent of Jackie Wilson, but packed into a body like Drew Carey's, he is pretty special.

Here's more Steve:



But in many years working in the music biz, I don't often say what I'm saying about this band. I've seen many, many acts live, as I've blogged about here before: Beatles, Hendrix, et al. And while I don't put these guys into those lofty categories, still, they are really one of the best bands I've heard in a long time.

As I was discussing with a friend the other night, it's like realizing that you are the last one to know about something.

I wish I'd gotten here earlier. But now, I'll make up for lost time.