City And Colour – Live

For me, City & Colour will always be a live band. Well, not live band, since it’s only Dallas Green (the guy who doesn’t scream in Alexisonfire), but live performer nonetheless. His CD, while good, has never really been able to fully capture my attention. I enjoy the occasional song here and there, but Sometimes isn’t a CD I’ll go out of my way to listen to.

Live however, City & Colour is amazing. I’ve seen him three times now, and each time Green has blown me away by his stage presence and overall persona. There is a certain charm in his self consciousness, in his spontaneity and his interaction with the crowd that is undeniable; but since he can’t always tour as City & Colour, due to commitments with Alexisonfire, he recorded a set in Toronto with hopes to preserve that charm into a recording for everyone who can’t see him live to enjoy. He does, ultimately, fall short at achieving that goal but I still think I’ll find myself reaching for Live much more than I ever will Sometimes.

Sound wise, Live is superb. It’s as if he’s in a studio, there’s no echo,no feedback and he sounds perfect. The only indication that it is live is the occasional chatter and crowd cheer. I would, however, like to have more of a live feel, more of the chatter; because, as I said, the best part about a live show from Green is his persona and banter between the songs. The CD leaves those parts out, it still flows perfectly (you can’t tell that they’ve cut anything out) but I can’t help think that it would be better all in one piece – which is exactly what they do on the DVD portion.

While it is the same Toronto performance on the DVD and CD, the DVD doesn’t skip over any of the jokes, the tuning, the conversations or the awkward silences. You get the performance in all it’s glory, perfectly in tact, and from a variety of angles. Sadly though, it would be hard to call it the most entertaining thing you could be watching on TV. Since City & Colour is just Green and his guitar, there isn’t a ton of movement or action – just him in front of a black background like it is at a real performance. It’s far from the most energetic performance, but it does the job perfectly.

Live successfully does what it was put out to do: give fans that have never seen Green live a glimpse of what it is. The sound quality is amazing, and you get a feel for the live performance but there’s still something missing. Some intangible charm that you can only get when you see the performance in person. To try and capture the power of a City & Colour show onto a disc is pretty much impossible. The DVD almost catches it, but until you sit and see him live in the same room as you, you’ll never truly understand how great of a performer Green really is – Live just hints at it.