Passenger proves likable at Malkin Bowl

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      At Malkin Bowl on Sunday, September 7

      The Straight's music section gets a lot of flak from readers who don't understand how journalism works. The whingers want to know why we would send an actual music critic to review a concert instead of the president of the performer in question's fan club. Hell, if I were limited to reviewing concerts by only those artists who are in heavy rotation on my iPod, I wouldn't have gone to see Céline Dion at Rogers Arena in 2008. And that would have been a crying shame, because then the world would have been denied my pithy observation regarding a particularly garment-rending version of "All By Myself": "It could only have been more over-the-top if she had ascended to the rafters and ignited a satchel charge, distributing herself over the crowd in a fine pink mist while the final notes rang out." And consider this gem, from my review of Britney Spears's circus-themed tour stop at the same venue: "Attired as a ringmaster (or at least what a call girl might wear if you paid her to dress up like one), a whip-brandishing Brit-Brit descended from the rigging on a platform to join her dancers, some of whom wore lucha libre masks and PVC briefs, while others looked like the kind of clowns that make kids piss their beds."

      All of which is my long-winded way of admitting that I went to Passenger's Malkin Bowl show despite having very little actual interest in the music. I had heard several Passenger albums, but my main impression of English singer-songwriter Michael Rosenberg was that he made perfectly pleasant aural wallpaper; the sort of thing you might download (because you got the code from Starbucks) and then never listen to. His very English-singer-songwriter vibe made him seem like a sort of David Gray for people too young to know who David Gray is.

      When Rosenberg stepped onto the stage armed with only an acoustic guitar, he warned newcomers like me that we were in for the most miserable 90 minutes of our lives. This earned him his first laugh of the evening, and it was instantly evident that those who love Passenger's music love it a lot. Illuminated by a full moon and surrounded by the inky black silhouettes of towering conifers, the freshly scrubbed crowd sang and clapped along unabashedly right from the opening number, "Fairytales & Firesides".

      It's uncanny: when Rosenberg talks, he sounds like a perfectly normal dude, but when he sings, he shifts into a slightly raspy, higher register, and some sort of whimsical, hobbitlike creature emerges. If that makes him sound just a bit twee, he dispensed with that by the end of his second number, "Life's for the Living", by hammering out the chords on his Gibson and stomping the shit out of the stage.

      I was already starting to warm to the guy when he won me over woth a one-two punch: "Riding to New York", the real-life-inspired story of a terminally ill man and his final cross-country motorcycle trek—I saw more than one concertgoer wiping away tears during that one—followed by a version of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" that rivalled the original for sheer emotional firepower. Rosenberg followed that up by declaring "This next song is all about the stuff that really pisses me off." It was less a segue than a sudden shift in tone, but "I Hate" proved to be a crowd-pleaser, most likely because its lyrics go straight for the low-hanging fruit. ("I hate racist blokes, telling tasteless jokes.")

      Passenger's lyrics can be a tad on-the-nose, but I was willing to overlook that because the beardy hobbit-man is so darn likeable. I even forgave the guy for playing a bit of Avicii's "Wake Me Up" before launching into his own best-known song, "Let Her Go".

      Arguably, Rosenberg saved the best for almost-last, returning for an encore that included a lovely, and typically heartfelt cover of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You", for which the headliner was joined by opening acts the Once and Stu Larsen. Following that up with his own "Holes" was somewhat anticlimactic, but no one seemed to mind much. In the end, it wasn't such a miserable 90 minutes after all.

      I wonder what David Gray is up to these days?

      Comments

      3 Comments

      Renee

      Sep 8, 2014 at 8:39am

      Well to answer your question, David Gray is touring for his new album and came to Vancouver a few weeks ago. The show was off the charts. I have seen him 6 times and this was by far the best of his shows. I was actually quite surprised that the Straight didn't attend and or review his show.

      Janey

      Sep 8, 2014 at 11:53am

      Well aren't you a smarty-pants. Can we have a proper review, rather than a synopsis of your previous work. Passenger was excellent - one of the highlights of the year.

      Once again Team Canada > Team Australia

      Sep 15, 2014 at 2:40pm

      This guy makes it very hard to GOOGLE search for Vancouver's own The Passenger (Jesse Creed)