City and Colour, Casey Baker – Live (Jan. 6th, 2007)

This was the third trip to Edmonton City & Colour had made up to Edmonton in the past ten months, and while he hadn’t released any new material during that time period, the crowd still came out and filled up the Winspear Centre to see Dallas Green stroke his guitar.

Doors opened at 7:30 and the people were wondering whether or not Green would have an opener, as eight o’clock came, Casey Baker came onto the stage to cheers of “we love you Dallas!” to which he responded “my name is definitely not Dallas, but I have slept at his house before.” This little exchange inadvertently set the tone for the entire evening gas the crowd eventually became an integral part in Green’s (and to some extent, Baker’s) performance.

Both performers were up on the stage surrounded by 19,000 open ears, and both had a sense of insecurity to them and called out for the fans to react. Baker nervously told stories and jokes as he tuned his guitar between tracks, rambling about Air Canada,pumpkin scones, and the effort that goes into packaging one of his albums. The little jokes, while awkward at times, also led the way for the truly intimate performance that Green gave thirty minutes later – and that’s what you want in a show like this.

Green build on the momentum of Baker, holding conversations with the crowd and truly encouraging interaction. He stepped away from the mic in Hello, I’m In Delaware in hopes of the crowd picking up on the verse, but sadly his hopes fell on empty ears as the crowd was silent – after another try they sang, but to the first verse instead of the second. But to Green, that didn’t matter, and to the fans, that was part of the magic of the show. The little spots of spontaneity that you can’t plan, that just happen during the course of the day and required a quick reaction to help smooth it over.

Green was full of those reactions, reacting to questions from the crowd (“Hey Dallas, can I ask you a question? Can I have your set list?”), reacting to hitting his glasses on the microphone (“I thought glasses were supposed to help you see.”) even losing his guitar pick before the first track of the night (“okay, if I lose this second pick I don’t have another so the show will be over, so no one say anything.”) He spoke to the crowd, the people in front, beside, and even behind him – apologizing for the fact that he had no butt but suggested looking at the cool organ if you got bored.

It was, as he hoped, 19,000 friends sitting on a couch, telling stories, answering questions, and singing songs. And for those friends, he tried to do some unique things that they wouldn’t have heard before. Including some new songs, like Confession, some cover songs like Wasting Time by Ron Sexsmith. He even dove into a Lionel Ritchie track dedicating it to a friend who saw him for New Years. When someone shouted “You’re bringing sexy back” he started Justin Timberlake‘s My Love; and when he came back for the encore he left the guitars to the side and went instead for the grand piano and played some new songs including Sensible Heart.

At one point during his set, Baker commented on the similarities between tuning your guitar in front of a crowd and peeing with the door open – how it was slightly awkward and revealing at the same time. The show was like that, it was intimated, revealing and, at times, awkward. At times the shouts and comments from the crowd just left you cringing and wondering how to react, but it was those comments that made the show so special too. It is that spontaneity that will never be repeated. Green’s a performer, and when City & Colour comes back I’ll be back in line with the 19,000 other fans once again.

On a slightly related topic, somebody filmed most of the performance and posted it on MySpace. While I don’t support the illegal sharing of videos, you know it’s gonna happen. So if you’re interested, you can go here and watch 8 City & Colour tracks (including some unreleased songs and a lot of the little banter that made the show so enjoyable) and Casey Baker‘s final song of the night, Daredevil.