The Barr Brothers - Massey Hall, 06/20/2014

[lucasdavidsamuels]

The guys played a show at the legendary Massey Hall this past Friday as part of NXNE in Toronto. They opened for Spiritualized, J. Spaceman's spacey psych-rock band.

I had seen the guys perform at Massey opening for Patrick Watson about a year ago or so, but they had arrived from MTL pretty late and had to forfeit their soundcheck...and it showed. Sound was crummy at best.

Friday's show was properly 'checked' and the mix was beautiful. The subtle nuances which we've come to know, expect, and love from the Barrs were fully audible. My only wish was that Brad's guitar was turned up slightly, along with his vocals. That said, sound was about 95% perfect.

The setlist was filled with newer tunes from the upcoming Sleeping Operator, and they've now got an upright bass player in the mix which was pretty cool.

This is the setlist as best as I can remember it:

1. Little Lover - slightly reworked but with the same 'gathered around the mic' opening bit.
2. New tune
3. Even The Darkness Has Arms - reworked version, not gathered around single mic. Andrew on banjo. Not nearly as intimate or charming IMO
4. Half Crazy - they brought a friend out to play some bass violin which added some cool texture.
5. Love Is Enough - intro jam was the ending jam of "Who's Gunna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet?" with Brad doing some nice looping of the banjo before switching to electric
6. England - house lights went on before this and they thought their set was finished (abruptly). Crowd clapped them into an encore. A bit of a rushed version of England.

I think I'm missing a tune or two...

All in all, a nice show. Not the best I've ever seen from them. Feels like they're still getting their footing with the new songs and newer arrangements of old(ish) tunes.

Search #thebarrbrothers on Instagram to find some nice pics from the show!

[booher]

As the Neil Young show/album is a favorite of mine, there's something special about that place. I know they're all Neil Young fans so that must be near and dear to them, too. I'd love the opportunity to see them.

Really interesting to see them open for a shoegaze act, though, and I've actually been meaning to spin them some. I thought I'd gotten around to them but they're apparently one of the shoegaze bands Last.fm keeps recommending that I haven't listened to.