The Weakerthans @ the Music Hall of Williamsburg

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Sunday, 20 September 2009 22:58

"You're getting a bar band performance tonight," a voice shouts from the stage of the Music Hall of Williamsburg. "They built this fancy theater, and we come in and we give you a bar performance."

The remarks were not far off. The Weakerthans' performance that night will not be remembered for its tight playing or its slick professionalism. Frontman John Samson started each song by doing a little mini-practice tune up, rapidly checking the chords to make sure he remembered where they were. ("I need to remember the swing of this song," Samson said, marching his feet a little, to find the rhythm he needed to count the rest of the band in.) Sometimes, it didn't help. There were a couple of mistakes and re-starts, and one song where Samson gave up playing in the middle and resigned himself to only singing. Also, at any given moment in the night, it looked like he was about to dissolve into giggles.

Fortunately, the little missteps only added to the charm of the band—sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy living up to the band name. The "bar band" performance remark came when there was a prolonged onstage discussion about what to play next. While the delay might have been annoying to some, all was forgiven when they came back to play "Watermark," a fan favorite and constant request from the audience. This kind of playfulness and lack of rigidity also lent itself to some silly rockstar antics, like windmill-armed guitar strums or rocking with all vertical guitars, like they were angling for extra Rock Band points.

Though the Weakerthans didn't seem to play specifically to promote last year's Reunion Tour, the setlist was mostly made up of songs from that album and the preceding Reconstruction Site. (This allowed the band to play both "A Plea from a Cat Named Virtute" and its sequel song, "Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure," which made for an oddly satisfying last song.)

The songs seemed to be grouped by mood, with a mid-set "One Great City," "Sounds Familiar," and "Bigfoot" slowing things down before picking things up again with songs like "Plea" and "The Reasons." Fans in the crowd received each song with equal enthusiasm, singing along to every lyric—though it was the older numbers on the setlist, like "Confessions of a Futon Revolutionist," that garnered the most of this singalong excitement. Sure, the chords may be harder to remember and more difficult for Samson to count in, but at least no one—band or fan—forgot the words.

-Marisa LaScala