Barenaked Ladies: Concert with a Social Conscience

Experiential Reporting: BNL Concert with a Social Conscience
the ACC
Feb. 16, 2007

Toronto’s Air Canada Centre is probably the worse concert venue. As an acoustic space, the 5 millisecond slap back echo makes listening to music very difficult. When I first walked into the ACC around 7:45, I expected to be late and to have to be the annoying latecomer who climbs over people to get to my seats. However, when I arrived, the small amount of early comers were being serenaded by a mediocre opening band. Next time I’ll just arrive a lot later. The opening band was fairly mainstream sounding and was a big change from the Ladies since none of their lyrics were very intelligible. This seemed a huge contrast to the Ladies whose music is so lyric driven.

After almost an hours wait, the real opening act arrived. The focus of the Barenaked Ladies’ cross Canada tour is to be Green. They implemented plans like no idling on their tour bus and drinking from reusable containers. Furthermore, they have begun to distribute their music on USB keys so that their music may be shared more widely between computers and iPods and to provide a reusable media. David Suzuki came out to a standing ovation. What a testament to environmental activism. It’s easy to tell the kind of audience the BNL draw. The crowd was mostly teenagers, 20 somethings and people in their early thirties: all who have appreciated the better part of BNL’s musical career. Most are pretty left wing youth who value the environment and social issues. So Suzuki’s message did not fall on deaf ears. In fact, it’s refreshing in a way to see a crowd of people excited and passionate about positive change.

Other than the opening band, another aspect which seemed out of place was the groups of screaming prostitots. The BNL, thankfully so, have never been associated with other indulgent pop acts such as Justin Timberlake that cater to throngs of screaming girls. Instead, their witty lyrics and superior musicianship separate them from other flakey pop acts that plague our airwaves. The ear piercing screams emanating from these groups of teeny boppers were analogous to the stadium environment, but certainly not to the humorous, socially aware music of the Ladies.

Apart from the social conscience of the BNL, their music really helps to put Canada on the map. They infuse their lyrics with references to real life counterparts which help to ground their music in local, Canadian settings. For example, their song One Week ends with the phrase “Birchmount Stadium home of the Robbie” which is a reference to a stadium in Scarborough that hosts “the Robbie” soccer tournament once a year. Furthermore, their song The Old Apartment includes the line “we bought an old house on the Danforth.” Hello City is an entire song about Halifax. Their lyrics have an element of storytelling which is contextualized in real settings which gives their songs resonance to especially local, Canadian audiences. It encourages listeners not familiar with these Canadianisms to find out what they all mean.