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Facking awesome. And they covered both the Jam ("In The City") and Willie Nelson ("On The Road Again"), and any band that can connect the dots between the Jam and Willie gets nothing but respect from me.
This was Marah's first time ever in Vancouver, which was something Serge Bielanko mocked in the intro to a song. "I didn't know what to expect," he said. "But I didn't expect tall buildings." His brother Dave didn't appear to know what to expect either, as he was clad in his trademark toque and heavy black leather jacket like it was the dead of a New York winter, even though the club was swelteringly hot. Dude seemed close to heat exhaustion towards the end of the set (and a side note to Dick Cheney: forget about your present torture techniques - if you want to torture prisoners, just make them smell the inside of Dave Bielanko's toque. Yeesh.) Anyway, be it heat exhaustion or all the free drinks offered from the crowd, the band put on a the sort of show that could seep itself into local legend.
The set list was a random sampling of stuff from Marah's discography - although, as expected, there was nothing off of Float Away With The Friday Night Gods. Unexpectedly, however, they also played nada from 20,000 Streets Under The Sky - and I would've surrendered Lance Armstrong's lone nut to hear "East" or "Freedom Park". But overall that's a petty complaint, considering they played most of my favorites (oldies like "Barstool Boys", "Round Eye Blues", "Faraway You", "It's Only Money, Tyrone", "Head On", "For The Price Of A Song" as well as almost the entirety of the new album).
The crowd brought them back for encore after encore. After the second only Dave Bielanko and the keyboard player stayed on the stage, both sweat-drenched and kneeling at the foot of the stage, unsure of whether to follow their bandmates offstage or satisfy the calls for more. A female friend of mine strategically shoved a glass of whiskey towards them - and that clinched the deal. They started into "Walt Whitman Bridge", just keyboards and Dave, and gradually the rest of the band (minus Serge) found their way back to the stage. It was a pretty cool moment - a band playing for the love of playing (or for the love of alcohol, but whatever) - and after another song they dragged Serge and their roadie onstage and ended the night with a full-cast sloppy drunk version of Willie's "On The Road Again."
And, yeh, I know Marah doesn't add anything new to the lexicon. Springsteen crossed with the Replacements and the Faces (with a little Gram thrown in) is, no matter how you cut it, a sound firmly entrenched in rock tradition, which many people will answer with a collective "meh." But trust me, catch 'em now, while they're still mixing Willie with the Jam - 'cuz, mang, we'll only appreciate them all the more once they mature and turn into the Style Council.
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