Last night I went to a local club in Waterloo called the Starlight Club to see the musical musings of Hayden. If your Canadian (and like good music) there is a good chance you’ve heard of Hayden before. Through out his musical career I’d imagine his music has been called abrasive (since some songs are very harsh), depressing (since some songs are depressing) and beautful (since all of his songs have levels of beauty in them). Hayden is certainly not someone you would find on Canadian or American Idol and would probably be told by Simon and Randy to never sing again (since I think those guys are full of crap almost all of the time).
This was the second time I’ve had the chance to see Hayden live (actually the third but we didn’t get into to see him that time). The first time was in Feburary of 2002 at the Humanities Theatre on the University of Waterloo campus. This show was quite different than the first one I saw. Last night was the first time in around a year that he had been out touring so he was nervous plus a little unprepared. No one minded though. His little slip ups made us laugh. During his song “Bass Guitar” he forgot a line and had to ask the audience what it was. He also showcased four or five new songs that will be on an album in the works. Before playing the songs he told us that he hadn’t copywrited or registered them yet so please don’t play them for your friends and claim that you wrote them. A couple second later he added that he might have been a little presumptuous saying that since we might not want to claim the songs for our own after we listen to them. During one of the new songs he tried doing a “human trumpet” solo but kept cracking up and evenutally just said screw it.
The opener for the night was another Canadian by the name of Howie Beck. His music shares some commonality with Hayden’s while being original in it’s own right. During the opener Howie got Hayden to come up on stage and sing melody with him. Hayden returned the favour by having Howie come up on stage during the main set and singing two songs with him. This ended up being hillarious since Hayden and Howie kept cracking each other up so much so that they had to start over the second song they sang four times before they stopped cracking each other up.
Overall the show was great. Hayden and Howie were fantastic. I always enjoy how Hayden keeps the crowd happy and laughing with his little stories in between songs and his slip-ups during songs. The only problem I had with the night was the atmosphere. It wasn’t the same as the Humanities Theatre show but I realized it wouldn’t be. I think for me there was just too much going on outside of Hayden on the stage. People around us talked while Hayden was playing. People were getting up and sitting down all throughout the show. So much so that it was distracting. Though it’s to be expected when you go to a show at a bar. This in no way reflects the performance of Hayden and Howie or on the club itself. It’s just the way I saw it.
I’m thinking about going to another show tonight. A east coast hip-hop/electronic/country/DJ/whoknowswhatelse musician by the moniker of Buck 65 is playing there tonight. I might have to go by myself if I do go, which would suck, but it should be a good show. Alright enough about music. Back to work!