Earlier this year, I professed my love for Andy Shauf’s brilliant album The Neon Skyline. The album so vividly tells the story of running into an ex while out on the town that you feel as if you’re there in the bar with the gang. On Saturday, I felt even closer to living that experience while seeing Shauf and his band play a show in Edmonton.
The Starlite Room, one of Edmonton’s flagship mid-sized venues, was transformed into the Neon Skyline Bar and Lounge for one night. The building’s dim chandelier light cascaded off red walls, fitting the atmosphere of the divey neighbourhood haunt I envisioned the album taking place in. A sold out crowd packed the place tightly, made up of a near evenly distributed range of people looking 20 – 55+.
I arrived shortly before the opening act went on. The constant hum of conversation was instantly brought to a halt when Molly Sarlé took the stage and began playing, immediately taking all control in the room for that one moment. Between the soft electric guitar, her sweet soothing voice, and lack of crowd chatter, I had never heard a concert venue that quiet before. It was a powerful display, being able to hold an audience so rapt with so few sources of sound. The gentle strums and picks provided a tender backdrop for the powerful yet understated elegance of her voice by giving room to stretch out long syllables in a seemingly effortless way. Alone for most of her set, Sarlé would be joined by a drummer and bassist, from Shauf’s band, for her final song. Mid-set, she shared a story about taking a pregnancy test, thinking it was positive, before leaving for work only to return home later in the day to find that there was a mistake, represented by a book icon on the screen. She mused on the confusing choice of a book when “error” would have been a more direct statement. My recalling of the story doesn’t do the justice of the humour she delivered it with, especially considering that she interrupted her playing of a song’s intro to stop and tell the story without any prompt whatsoever.
After a short intermission, a red neon circle came alight behind the stage. The Neon Skyline was open and Andy walked in. Armed with an acoustic guitar, he was joined by the drummer and bassist from earlier, as well as a keyboardist and clarinet player. The band took a half moon formation, with the drummer front left, bass, guitar, and woodwinds at the back coming around to keys on the front right, and Shauf’s mic stand front and centre. They went on to play the latest album in full from front to back, as well as a few songs from 2016’s The Party.
The live renditions of these tracks held quite true to their album versions, with very few elements of improvisation. It didn’t seem like Shauf and his band were too keen on showing off with theatrics of instrumental virtuosity, and they didn’t have to with songs as good as his are. Seemingly preferring not to take too much of the spotlight, Shauf would slip back in between the bass player and guitarist if he didn’t have to sing for a while. He kept the crowd banter to a minimum, saying nothing but a few thank yous and a mid-set inquiry about how everyone was doing.
During one lull between songs, a bro with a broish voice called out “I LIKE THE WAY THE WAY YOU WRITE SONNGZZZ” and got no response. If Andy did hear him, perhaps he prefers to let those well-written songs speak for themselves. I was enamoured with them, and so did the rest of the crowd seem to be with its roaring yet polite cheers. I was particularly affected by “Firetruck”, my favourite song on the new record. The chord change that comes in at the second last line of each verse before the release of the “do do do” chorus fills me with emotion that I struggle to describe. A smile fills my face but my heart sinks too. Words fail the feeling, and I don’t know if it’s a lack of music theory knowledge that makes it indescribable for me or if it’s just the power that music can have. Either way, bravo Andy Shauf. I also like the way you write songs.
One performer in the band who stood out to me was the drummer. I didn’t catch his name, but I really enjoyed how he played the drums just as much with his body and mouth as he did with his arms. There were a couple time I thought he was about to fall off his chair and set cymbals and toms scattering across the stage. With every precise and careful strike, he leaned in through the torso, swaying back and forth and gesturing expressively with his lips as if he was oohing and aahing to the groove. He seemed to be having a lot of fun and the crowd took notice, providing him with the most rousing cheer when the band members were officially introduced one by one towards the end of the set.
After the band left the stage, Andy returned with his guitar to close out the night with a solo performance of “Hometown Hero” from 2012’s The Bearer of Bad News. Between that finish, all of The Neon Skyline, and his selection of tracks from The Party (“The Magician”, “Alexander All Alone”, “Early To The Party” “Quite Like You”, Twist Your Ankle”), I really couldn’t have asked for a better setlist. It always feels especially great to see one of your favourite artists play most of your favourite songs from their catalogue.
Looking back on my initial piece on The Neon Skyline, I spent a lot of time talking about Judy’s appearance on the album. She actually doesn’t show up in person until the eight track and is gone after three songs. I didn’t make this realization until midway through the show and could probably attribute it to actually being in the room with Andy. Judy never came on stage. Maybe she was in the crowd. Or maybe she was working at the drugstore that night. I guess I’ll never really know where she is, but I could have bought a red shirt from the merch table that asks the question of her whereabouts eternally.
Other quick observations
- I appreciated the fact that Andy pronounced “chairs” during “Clove Cigarette” in the exact same way he does on the album.
- The word “cigarette” appears quite frequently in his songs, especially on The Party. Maybe it’s one of his favourite words.
- It looked like the bassist was wearing mechanic-style coveralls, as if he got off his shift at the Kal-Tire garage and immediately headed to the show. Maybe I was deceived by the the dim lights but I liked the look.
If you haven’t already, listen to Andy Shauf’s The Neon Skyline and Molly Sarlé’s Karaoke Angel below.