Dan Mangan @ CBC Studio 40 -- 09/17/11

Gearing up for the release of his new album on the 27th, Dan Mangan took over Studio 40 at CBC Vancouver for a special unveiling of Oh Fortune, broadcast live on CBC Radio 3. Hosted by R3 announcer Lisa Christiansen, they started by requesting no applause between songs, and Dan explained that he wasn't going to be talking, just going to go straight through the album, with all the transitions between songs intact.

Joined by his usual cohorts, Kenton Loewen on drums, Johnny Wah on bass and Gord Grdina on guitar, they were also had keys and a section of strings, horns and woodwinds to round out the sound. Starting off with the awesomely-named "About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All", they immediately made use of the awesome expanded instrument section, with a song that made me want to learn to waltz. "Post-War Blues" is a song I had heard live before and loved, but after hearing it on the album -- and especially last night -- it has quickly one of my favourite Mangan songs, driving to an explosive and emotional climax.
The rest of the set was a range of emotions from melancholy "If I Am Dead" to a little more more upbeat with the title track, "Oh Fortune" and "Daffodil", which despite still being emotional, still had Dan's sense of humour with at least one pun in the lyrics. On the surface, the album sounds very different from Nice, Nice, Very Nice, but is still very distinctively "Dan Mangan".
As the album drew to a close, they ended with the question-only song, "Jeopardy", and then the audience finally got to show their appreciation. There was a bit of banter, and Dan tossed some (very un-aerodynamic) t-shirts into the crowd, but they weren't done yet, as he played a few older ones. The ending of "Sold" has most people clapping along, and he brought the whole evening to a close, unsurprisingly, with "Robots", coming out into the crowd for everyone to sing along to the end.

It was a fantastic show, and as a person that always listens to albums front to back, it was an amazing experience to see pulled off live. Even though I have had the opportunity to see Dan Mangan live several times now, he never fails to wow me with his live performances.
And if you missed it, don't worry; it will soon be rebroadcast on the CBC as well as put out as a podcast soon enough.

setlist
About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All; How Darwinian; Post-War Blues; If I Am Dead; Daffodil; Starts With Them, Ends With Us; Oh Fortune; Leaves, Trees, Forest; Rows Of Houses; Regarding Death and Dying; Jeopardy; Sold; Some People; Robots.

Winning America



When Said The Whale headed south for small American tour on the way to the final destination, legendary SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, they didn't just bring their determination to break into the elusive American market, they brought a film crew too.

I had the chance to see the documentary last week, and it is a lot more fascinating that I thought it would be -- it's not just another generic "watch a band as they tour" film, but rather a [sometimes brutally] honest look at what it takes for a band -- not just a Canadian band -- to "make it" in the States.

Going from interviewing members of the band in their day jobs to their final show at the China Cloud; their unfortunate robbery in California to playing shows at SXSW in parking lots and record stored for five people; and the infamous Mustard Incident, and it all comes together to end with-- you know what? You'll just have to find out for yourself.

Winning America air on CBC BC tomorrow night (Saturday the 23rd) at 7pm, and rumour has it that it will be streaming for the rest of Canada, America and the World soon after.

Dan Mangan (w/ Fanshaw) @ CBC Studio 1 -- 02/26/10

I have been incredibly fortunate with Dan Mangan shows. Aside from the fact that I've only seen him twice, the first time was his fantastic CD release party at the Cultch, which included him & his band, of course, but also an orchestral section and Shane Koyczan. Something, he confessed, that would probably never happen again. This time, he played a CBC Radio 3 sponsored show, going out live (and probably online in the near future) in Studio 1 at the CBC headquarters. The room couldn't have held more than a hundred or so people, so it was a very intimate setting.

First up, though, was Fanshaw. I saw her at the Mint Records X-Mas Show, and really liked the set, especially her voice. Simultaneously soft & powerful, Olivia Fetherstonhaugh (formerly of The Choir Practice) has a voice that commands attention even at a whisper. The three piece -- Oliva on guitar accompanied by bass & drums -- alternated between upbeat and down tempo songs, and even alternated members, with some songs being just Olivia, and one adding a french horn.
The set ended with a duet between Olivia and her drummer, who took over guitar duties, covering "Love Hurts". While they may not get points for originality (how many times has that song been covered?) it was a pretty damn good cover of the song, with their voices blending together really well. I've been idly looking for the album, Dark Eyes, which came out about a month ago, but I think after last night I am going to have to start seriously looking for it.

Between sets, Lisa Christiansen briefly interviewed both Olivia & Dan, and also gave out some prizes with trivia.

At 8 sharp, Dan Mangan took the stage with his backing musicians... a trio of horns & a trio of strings. He started off with "Sold" before going into "Fair Verona", which was already one of my favourite songs, but absolutely amazing with the horns & strings. And considering he mentioned they only had two rehearsal sessions together, it was pretty great. There was also the usual humour thrown in, cracking jokes between songs. I once likened Mangan's stage presence to that of Joel Plaskett, not only with the effortless stage banter and humour, but also using that to create intimacy in the set. Even if it wasn't already a small room, Mangan is able to make it seem like he's just a pal, playing in your living room. The highlight of the set would have to be "Basket", which just bled raw emotion. It was incredible and managed to give me chills; and I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few tears rolling down cheeks by the end of it. He "ended" the too-short-set with "Robots", with of course everyone singing and clapping along. There was a vaguely awkward moment as he wandered off, then back on for the requisite encore, asking the members of Fanshaw to lead the crowd in the background ooo-oooh's for "So Much For Everyone"
With just the orchestral section and Dan Mangan, it was an incredibly rich and beautiful sounding show, which was improved upon immensely with the intimacy of the room. I think I might just be slightly disappointed next time I see him live, since I am pretty sure shows like this will never be repeated. Luckily, it'll be up soon enough on R3 for repeated listening.

Setlist:
Sold, Fair Verona, The Indie Queens Are Waiting, Road Regrets, Et Les Mots Croisés, Pine For Cedars, Tina's Glorious Comeback, Basket, Robots. (encore) So Much For Everyone.

The other thing I noticed about this show was how awesome the crowd was. Maybe it is because they all knew it was going out live, but everyone was incredibly respectful while both Fanshaw and Mangan were playing. Don't get me wrong, between songs and everything, people went nuts -- Dan got a standing ovation at the end -- but while they were actually playing/singing, the crowd was silent. It's been a while since I've been to a show and someone wasn't incessantly chatting the whole time... I kind of wish all shows had crowds like this.