Tim Baker @ Commodore Ballroom -- November 18, 2022

Tim Baker has been busy. With the release of his latest solo album, The Festival, the former Hey Rosetta! frontman has been getting back into touring shape, as seen on the series of shorts on his youtube channel, It's Gonna Be Great. And it's a good thing he did, because his current tour landed him here in Vancouver, at the legendary Commodore Ballroom.

Opening the night was Georgia Harmer, alone on stage with all her guitars -- joking about wanting to show each one off now that she could tour again. Playing stripped down versions of songs off her laetst album, Stay in Touch, her voice managed to cut through the chatter Friday night crowd. The catchy & rollicking “All In My Mind” and the breezy “Top Down” caught people's attention, before “Be Here”, a gorgeous closer.
I managed to see a little bit of her set when she opened for Dan Mangan earlier this year, and I was quite happy to see her again this night.

As the lights dimmed and the the sound of waves crashing filled the room, Tim Baker took the stage with his All Hands band. He started off with “Lucky Few”, at first just his soft voice alone at the piano, a single spotlight on him, before the rest of the band slowly joined in, bathed in a blue light as the song grew.

From there the set ebbed and flowed — much like his songs themselves often do — swelling up with intensity like the soaring “The Shield”, before crashing down like the melancholic “Dance”. Other highlights included my two favourites off his new album, “Year of the Dog” exploding into a heartwarming finish, and the fun and bouncy “Some Day” that had the crowd joining in.

Part way through the set he slipped in a couple old Hey Rosetta! songs, first a “Soft Offering (For The Oft Suffering)” and then “Welcome”, a classic which hit me way harder emotionally than I was expecting, building to an incredible finish.

After a huge fun singalong to “All Hands”, Baker ending the main set, appropriately enough, with “Don't Let Me Go Yet”. Which the crowd did not, calling him back for more; the joyful Hey Rosetta! tune “Harriet” and yet another appropriate closing song, “Goodnight Everybody”.

If you were to force me to make a list (which I hate doing) of my favourite bands, I think Hey Rosetta! would rank pretty high. But even though they went on an “indefinite hiatus” in 2017, it's been hard to miss them, as Tim Baker has continued on, making some excellent solo albums, putting on incredible, emotional live shows.

setlist
Lucky Few
The Shield
Spirit
My Kind
Dance
Strange River
Jungle Suite
Year of the Dog
Some Day
Soft Offering (For The Oft Suffering)
Welcome
Echo Park
The Festival
All Hands
Don't Let Me Go Yet
(encore)
Harriet
Goodnight Everyone

PHOTOS: Dan Mangan @ The Vogue Theatre - May 11, 2022

Dan Mangan
Vogue Theatre
May 11, 2022
Christine McAvoy Photography

Click here to read Kirk’s recap.

Dan Mangan @ Vogue Theatre -- May 11, 2022

This is a show that's been over two years in the making. Originally scheduled for April of 2020, this show has been postponed and rescheduled and postponed and rescheduled and... until finally landing on May 11th & 12th of 2022, luckily still at the Vogue theatre.

I caught the tail end of the opening act, Georgia Harmer, just her and a guitarist on stage. With a voice and talent that belies her age, she played stripped down versions of songs off her recently released debut album Stay in Touch, like the catchy “All In My Mind”, and finished off with “Top Down”.
I’ve been meaning to pick up her album, and from what I saw, I’ll need to do that sooner rather than later.

Not long after, the lights dimmed and Dan Mangan took the stage with his backing band, kicking right off with “Which Is It”, for a set that spanned his entire discography. From “Road Regrets”, which saw Dan's voice soaring over the theatre as he belted out the chorus, to the laid back “Lay Low”, a song about bailing on plans and staying home -- which Dan joked he now really regretted writing now.

Early on, Mangan said he wasn't going to talk too much, as he wanted to pack in as much music as possible, but with an effortless charm, he still told stories about the songs, bantered with the crowd, and gave out his ‘band cell’ number so everyone in attendance could text in for a recording of the evening's show.

Part way through the set the band took a brief break and Dan played a few songs solo, including a requested cover of Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”, and was joined by Georgia Harmer for a lovely rendition of “The Indie Queens Are Waiting”, before the band returned for a huge singalong to “Robots”, Dan standing at the front of the stage, completely off mic, leading the crowd.

Other highlights included the charming “Pine for Cedars”, the raucous “Vessel”, and the intensely bombastic “Post-War Blues”, which ended off the main set.

But we didn't have to wait long before Dan was back out, on his own at first for the absolutely heartbreaking “Basket”, with more soft singing along (and I'm sure a few tears) from the audience. Then it was time to bring out ‘The Hammer’, a large lighting rig that syncs with the finale of the set, “So Much for Everyone”. In the past Dan has waded out into the middle of the crowd with this contraption, but since it's probably not wise to do that these days, he and the band -- as well as Georgia Harmer -- crowded around a single microphone, with Dan leading a choir of voices to send everyone off with their hearts full.

Sometimes you get a musician and venue that just "fit" perfectly together, and I think that's Dan with the Vogue. From the first time he played there in 2010, to the last time — as documented by All Together Now — he just feels at home there. And as I’m sure I’ve said before, he manages to make the full theatre feel like an intimate living room show.

setlist
Which Is It
Cold in the Summer
Road Regrets
Troubled Mind
Lay Low
Rows of Houses
Kitsch
Fool For Waiting
The Indie Queens are Waiting
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea [Neutral Milk Hotel cover]
In Your Corner (for Scott Hutchison)
Robots
Peaks & Valleys
Oh Fortune
Pine for Cedars
Forgetery
Vessel
Post-War Blues
(encore)
Basket
So Much for Everyone