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Photos By Dan Carruthers

Here’s a recipe for disaster - take a Nova Scotia rock band rooted in loud guitars and drinking songs and have them perform in a seated theatre with only acoustic instruments.

Fortunately, things went surprisingly well for The Trews, who scaled down Friday night at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. The concert, which was being recorded for an eventual CD/DVD release, was a mix of new and old material. A setlist of 25+ songs proved difficult to read for singer Colin MacDonald who joked, “We’re firing whoever printed this.”

Clearly out of their element as performers, the group instead showed off their musical prowess - guitarist John-Angus MacDonald proved he’s no slouch in an acoustic setting, using distortion pedals to put in a virtuoso performance on tracks like Yearning and Hollis and Morris.

In what was arguably the highlight of the evening, the group fused two songs into one - crossing the bridge from their 2004 single Fleeting Trust with Gun Control, a political track from their latest album. With John-Angus (along with band mates Jack Syperek and Sean Dalton) providing a harmonious “ooh” refrain, brother Colin put a haunting spin on the latter song’s aggressive lyrics.

The extended set served two purposes - it satisfied an audience hoping to hear their favourites, while helping to hide a glaring weakness in the Trews armour - they lack a front man who can truly engage the listener between songs. Keeping the banter to a bare minimum, at least MacDonald was honest; during a break in the set, he expressed what he considered many in the audience were thinking: “They’re better when I’m drunk.”

Not necessarily. It’s just a different sort of party when everyone -including the band - is so inhibited.

Setlist:
Poor Ol’ Broken Hearted Me
Every Inambition
No Time For Later
Paranoid Freak
Den of Thieves
Yearning
The Travelling Kind
When You Leave
I Can’t Stop Laughing
Locked Doors
Hollis And Morris
Fleeting Trust (with Gun Control)
Montebello Park
Tired of Waiting (with The Love You Save by Joe Tex)
Sing Your Heart Out
Makin’ Sunshine
Man Of Two Minds
Ishmael and Maggie
So She’s Leaving (with Crawl by Kings of Leon)
Hold Me in Your Arms

Encore:
You’re So Sober
The Pearl (More Than Everything)
Not Ready to Go
How’s Everything
Served My Time

Posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2009 at 4:49 pm by Dan Carruthers and is filed under Concerts & Events.

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