No Use For A Name – Live (May 21st, 2009)

“Can you guys even get drunk this early? I’ve tried but it just doesn’t seem to work. You guys are either stone sober or completed wasted – like that girl.”

No Use For A Name‘s Tony Sly joked around with the passive crowd last Thursday during the annual Fat Canada Tour – this time featuring NUFAN, Only Crime and recent Fat signees Pour Habit; and for the second year in a row, the show’s timing in Edmonton hurt its turnout. Last year’s showing with Mad Caddies, Real McKenzies and Saint Catherines didn’t start till close to midnight – with Mad Caddies hitting the stage at close to 2 AM I was told (I, myself, had left at 1230 after the McKenzies). This year was the complete opposite, with the show starting at 6PM and ending at 8:30, most people didn’t actually get to the venue until No Use had already started their set.

The somewhat empty floor looked awkward and it took a few songs before the crowd started to build and get into it. Sly and his band mates never faltered but you could tell they weren’t fully into it – just like the crowd. In fact guitarist Dave Nassie, while rather entertaining to watch, was clearly playing mostly for Chuck of Pour Habit who was standing beside the stage.

The whole evening seemed slightly detached, but as the hour passed by and the band got deeper into their extensive set list, you stopped noticing and began singing along with Sly as they ripped through their classic songs like Justified Black Eye, International You Day, For Fiona, Dumb Reminders, Soulmate and many more. Diverting of their set list a bit, they went into their two shortest songs: Sarah Fisher followed quickly by Gene and Paul I Hate You Most Of All, Ace Your The Ace and Peter Your The Cat. After a quick tune up and some random banter, Sly said “here’s a song we haven’t played yet” and immediately launched back into Gene and Paul I Hate You Most Of All, Ace Your The Ace and Peter Your The Cat to laughter from everyone.

The show really picked up in the final few songs of the evening. During Let Me Down, a couple brought up a toddler up to the stage which caught the attention of the band, launched Sly into a rant of curse words and had bassist Matt Riddle let the toddler slap a few lines on the bass for him. After a short demand for an encore, they came back onto the stage with The Biggest Lie and a fantastic cover of The Pogues‘ Fairytale of New York with Russ Ranking singing Shane MacGowan’s parts and Riddle singing Kirsty MacColl’s parts. They once more played Gene and Paul I Hate You Most Of All, Ace Your The Ace and Peter Your The Cat, said thanks and left the stage for the evening as the crowd walked outside into the blinding light of the early evening sun.

Set list:

On The Outside
I Want To Be Wrong
Justified Black Eye
Growing Down
Chasing Rainbows
Angela
For Fiona
The Answer Is Still No
Soulmat
International You Day
The Trumpet Player
Coming Too Close
Dumb Reminders
Invincible
Life Size Mirror
Let Me Down
Not Your Savior
Encore:
The Biggest Lie
Fairytale of New York
Gene and Paul I Hate You Most Of All, Ace Your The Ace and Peter Your The Cat

With Gene and Paul I Hate You Most Of All, Ace Your The Ace and Peter Your The Cat and Sarah Fisher somewhere else in the mix as well.