by Mark Gillis
Dan has made quite a name for himself as a Canadian folk hero over the past couple of years. He released his second full length album 'Nice, Nice, Very Nice' in 2009 to rave reviews and he even got a Polaris Prize shortlist nomination for it. That album really launched him into the upper echelon of the indiesphere in Canada. Fast forward to today and his third LP titled 'Oh Fortune' has been out for a month and just like 'Nice, Nice, Very Nice' it has been accepted very generously.
There were two opening bands, The Crackling (Who are actually Dan Mangan's band) and Molly Rankin. I won't comment a lot on them other than that I found both to be enjoyable. The Crackling played more of a folk style while Molly Rankin played some nice catchy pop tunes. It's nice when opening bands don't bore you to death so it was a pretty good start to the night.
Everyone was obviously there to see Dan though. It got quite busy before he was about to come on so I was glad that I staked out my usual spot in the front, just right of center. Throughout his set he played a good mix of songs from 'Oh Fortune' and 'Nice, Nice, Very Nice'. He has such a rough and aged sounding voice that everything he sings sounds so genuine. He might not be the best singer out there but he sings and plays with a ton of passion, (as does the rest of his band) and that translates into a great live show. He was also quite funny, which is always a plus.
So, I basically breezed through the description of his set to get to the encore that he did, because that was when all the magic happened. I'm a big believer that crowd involvement at shows is necessary to keep people coming back. If you're just going to stand there and play songs exactly as they are on the album then I may as well save myself the 20 bucks and stay home to listen to the album. The encore that Dan did really showed why he's such a beloved figure in Canadian music.
He started out with 'The Indie Queens Are Waiting' by himself, with no band. It was cool because the recording of the song has some parts with female vocals, which the crowd instinctively took over. Next he said he was going to try a cover. I've found in the past that live covers can really be hit or miss. It's tough to know whether or not a cover will get the same reception from the crowd as an original song would. He only prefaced it by saying it was an important song to him and it was probably important to lots of other people in the crowd so he'd try not to screw it up, then he started playing the first few chords to 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea' and I subsequently began to freak out. I think everyone knows how drenched in melancholic emotion that song is, and coupled with Dan's passionate vocals, the song was a highlight of the night to that point. Although, it wasn't the highlight for long.
Anybody who has heard of Dan Mangan has probably heard his song 'Robots'. I'll just say right now that in a live setting that song is the best sing-a-long I've ever heard, bar-none. The lyrics are simple and so readily repeatable. The crowd sang “Robots need love too / They want to be loved by you / They want to be loved by you” over and over again while Dan weaseled his way into the middle of everyone. It was an awesome moment, so have a look for yourself.
I figured that the show would be over at that point. I knew that Robots was usually the last song they played so I was prepared to leave, but then he said he'd play one more song if everyone in the crowd helped sing. The song he played was 'So Much For Everyone' and it created such a cool atmosphere. He basically got the whole crowd to be kind of a backing choir while he sang the song. It's tough to describe how awesome it was so just have a listen for yourself.
When I left it was still cold, dark and rainy outside, but I didn’t really seem to notice after the musically cathartic experience I just had.
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