Posted by On November 30th, 1996 I saw Bob Wiseman playing with a full rock band for the first and only time (aside from seeing him with Blue Rodeo which just does not count at all), and now, nearly thirty years later I can confirm that it stands as the greatest concert of my life.
Really? you might be wondering.
Yes, really. I would respond.
Oh, he’s in good company, that’s for sure. Tom Waits in Toronto, Oscar Peterson in Montreal, the first time I saw The Grateful Dead, Springsteen on his Born In The USA tour and Peter Gabriel on his So tour at the same Amnesty International concert, Phil Lesh at Levon’s Barn in Woodstock, the last time I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan, the first time I saw Kamasi Washington, Remember Shakti with Zakir Hussain and John McLaughlin, Hurra Torpedo at the Øya festival in Oslo, Phish’s Baker’s Dozen run at Madison Square Garden…
Yes, there have been some great shows. But sitting at the very tippity top of that list of the greatest concerts ever is this Bob Wiseman show; the only one that might touch it was when I saw Daniel Lanois, Jim Wilson, and Brian Blade at the Black Box in Toronto in 2012. But still, no.
Man-o-man.
Believe it or not this show was at Zaphod’s, an Ottawa venue that I’ve always disliked at best. Fortunately this was long before I started boycotting the place, and I remember this being one of the few times I scored one of the tiny, tiny amount of seats on the rail that faced the stage. I mean, were there three stools there, maybe four? And if you weren’t standing on the dancefloor these seats had the only solid sightlines to the stage in the place. Crazy.
Anyway, Bob was playing some kind of keyboard, like a Fender Rhodes or something, I don’t think it was a synth, and like I say he had a full, legit band up on stage with him that he had named The Pliable White Family (which I agree is slightly off-putting, but that was probably partly the point). Is it possible the drummer was Bob Scott from Look People? Nah, I doubt it. I’m pretty sure the bass player and electric guitarists were both ladies, Bob being the equal-employment observer that he always has been.
Anyway, they were fantastic, just a balls-to-the-wall straight-up super-tight rock and roll band framing Wiseman’s intimately interesting and infinitely clever pop songs. I saw him with a larger, odder band a year or two later (one guy played the garbage bag for a song and a broom for another, a lady alternated between vibrating wine glasses and singing equally piercing harmonies; it was a wonderfully odd group) and while that show was rather great, it didn’t even come close to the intensity of this Zaphod’s show.
That’s what it was: it was intense. Bob’s singer-songwriter act can be pretty intense on its own – the songs are just written that way – but adding to those songs the sonic force of amplified distortion at the hands of young, eager musicians put it way over the top. I hung on to the rail until my knuckles turned white, laughing hysterically out loud in sheer, uncontrollable joy the whole time*.
I specifically remember him playing Stay Untraceable, a little two-minute number from Wiseman’s Accidentally Acquired Beliefs album (which is awesome, by the way). I can see it like it was yesterday, and it was so damn good I almost exploded. A hundred and twenty seconds of pure bliss that stands atop forty years of incessantly chasing live music.
My goodness. Sometimes you just don’t know what you’re walking into.
After the show I just couldn’t not go up and compliment Bob on having performed such an astoundingly great concert. I stepped up to the little stage and said, “Hey wow, that was really…”
“Thanks would you give me a hand here and put this flight case over there by that door okay thanks,” he said without looking up, before turning to pack more gear.
“Um…sure,” I answered, doing as Bob had asked. I returned to the stage and tried once again to instigate my praise and again Bob simply set a piece of equipment in front of me and wordlessly turned back to unplugging and wrapping cables.
I set the second case next to the first one and walked straight out the door, shaking my head in respectful wonder and thinking, “this Bob Wiseman fella clearly knows his rock & roll.”
As far as I know he never toured with a rock outfit again. I wonder what he’s afraid of…fame?
*Whenever I hear music that really, really blows my mind it makes me laugh out loud. I don’t know why, but it does. You’ll often see me at quiet jazz shows with both hands pressed firmly against my mouth in an effort to control my reflexive hysterics.
Todd Man Out 