DarrenBarefoot.com

Last night I saw Sarah Harmer play at the Stanley Theatre. She played with a five-piece bluegrass band, and the entire evening had a very sleepy, relaxed quality to it. Though her music runs from rock to country to bluegrass, she arranged her songs for a stand-up-bass-and-no-drums kind of gig.

I had mixed feelings about the show, and preferred her straight-up rock show at the Centre last year. There were some lovely songs–”Oleander”, “Trouble in the Fields” and “I’m a Mountain” to pick three–but there were others that didn’t stand up to the bluegrass approach. “Almost” felt far too slow, “Lodestar” was a pale imitation of the original and “Coffee Stain” was crying out for a fuller sound and some harmonies.

They performed on the set of and with the lighting for Waiting for Godot (discussed here), which made for a pretty gorgeous staging. Besides the band, there was plenty to look at. The audience was appreciative though extremely reserved. I dug that, as I could sit quietly and appreciate the music without hearing people sing along. I also got the impression that the audience wasn’t that familiar with Sarah Harmer’s music. There were very few instances of that applause of recognition that you hear at the starts of songs.

I admire Sarah Harmer’s work in saving the Niagara escarpment (though, admittedly, the threatened area borders her parents’ land). However, last night she told the audience that they should become more aware of and get educated about the Sea-to-Sky highway improvements and the ‘wetlands’ (the wrong term, I’m pretty sure) that they threaten.

What’s that? An Ontario pop singer comes to the birthplace of the modern environmental movement and tells us to get educated? We recently saved a chunk of wilderness twice the size of Belgium and she’s worried about a couple of bluffs overlooking the highway? It was a tacky example of a celebrity being under-informed and wielding her power inappropriately.

All in all, though, I got my money’s worth out of the two hour set. There was no opening act (hurrah!) and she came on stage about ten minutes after the advertised start time. Very un-rock star.