Posted by On November 14th, 2004 I walked to the under-appreciated SAW Gallery in the equally under-appreciated Ottawa Art Gallery to see a performance by the even more under-appreciated Bob Wiseman. This was the second time I had seen him in that room, and while the previous show had been nearly empty I was very happy to see this one was rather packed.
Bob was on what he called the Tour of Responsibility which also featured The Distractions, a comedy troupe called Knock Knock Who’s There, and the rising CBC radio personality Sook Yin Lee. I really can’t see that any of the supplemental acts were responsible for boosting the crowd numbers but then I am admittedly extremely biased towards Mr. Wiseman.
Did I say “admittedly”? I meant “scream-from-the-highest-mountainedly”. I’m a fan all right, and one that is never pleased until he has pulled at least one more person into the wise man’s fold.
And while I don’t remember a thing about The Distractions I can report that the KKWT troupe was actually pretty in-person funny. I use that qualifier to point out that just because something makes you laugh when you’re in the front row of a small venue having paid money to be entertained doesn’t mean it’s going to make you laugh during a four-minute routine when you’re laying on the couch watching The Tonight Show.
For some ungodly reason Bob was not the headliner. While I’m sure Sook Yin Lee is a very nice person she is not really known for her music, and is especially not known for performing sets that make your heart want to explode due to a lethal combination of manic glee, tortured light-heartedness, and tearful empathy, as Bob’s soul-aching songs stuffed with existential insight and bittersweet humour invariably do.
I don’t think Bob was playing along to home-made videos yet but he was at least foreshadowing his coming phase by triggering recorded thought snippets in between his songs. Thus, his inevitably creative live banter was augmented by prerecorded phrases in his own voice, which said things like “what song am I gonna do next?” or “Dammit, I look so unprofessional, geez, just do Stay Untraceable*, people think that one is cute.” Anyway, no need to wait around for my overall opinion of his set. You all know that I always think he’s brilliant, and here he was again.
Nothing against Sook Yin Lee but it really looked like she was performing a one-off set that was neither rehearsed nor thought out. If I’m not mistaken it was mostly a cappella versions of Chinese nursery rhymes and Asian tv jingles. Bob did get up and join her (which stepped things up quite a bit) and he even called me up to improvise with the two of them and members of…was it the comedy troupe or The Distractions? And while I am thrilled to have shared the stage with one of my musical heroes I felt like things were less than stellar. ‘Matter of fact I think I wielded the borrowed guitar primarily as a rip cord, bringing the sonic experiment to a close before it got too tedious.
If I’m not mistaken it was just a couple of days later that Wiseman was booked to join his old band Blue Rodeo for a reunion show of sorts at Lee’s Palace in Toronto, a show that would undoubtedly have a lineup around the block. That Bob Wiseman himself doesn’t outsell his former soft-rocker brethren by double is nothing short of musical blasphemy. He’s a Canadian treasure, a misshapen diamond in an industry of Cubic Zirconia and he deserves to be a national icon.
Though he’s not finished yet. Look him up, he’s always up to something good. His new book (for example) is off-the-hook amazing.
*I first heard Stay Untraceable on a mixed tape that a friend made for me, and it wasn’t until I picked up Bob’s Accidentally Acquired Beliefs CD that I discovered that my friend’s tape deck was a bit wonky and had dubbed everything about 15% faster than the original. When I heard the song the way it was intended (slower and in a lower key) I was dejected. The faster version was just so, so much better…like, hit material. I mentioned this to Bob once and he quickly disagreed, though I doubt he ever bothered to listen to a speeded up version of the song.
Sometimes tempo is everything. Try altering Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer by even two or three BPM’s and you’ll hear what I mean. At any other tempo Sledgehammer would have been reduced to mere filler.
Todd Man Out 