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ACL review: City and Colour
At first glance, everything about Toronto’s City and Colour screams mediocrity. It’s the sensitive singer/songwriter act led by the guitarist of a screamo band, and his latest album is a borderline pretentious allusion to a Bukowski novel.
In other words, it’s something you’d guess you’ve heard before.
But take one listen to the honey-sweet vocals of Dallas Green on this year’s “Bring Me Your Love,” and you’ll be reminded that stereotypes rarely capture the whole story.
Green’s performance at ACL Fest took City and Colour’s music to an even higher level. Backed by a full band, Green traded the reverberated acoustic guitar on his albums for an electric guitar, with gritty distortion. Beside forming a nice contrast with his smooth tenor croon, the crunch of the electric added a southern blues tone to the music. The drums and bass in songs like “Sleeping Sickness” also created an extra dynamic dimension.
The highlight was the vocals, but surprisingly, Green didn’t carry the show on his own. The band started “As Much As I Ever Could” with a few measures of flawless four-part a capella harmony. On other songs, Green and the bassist played tag-team with the melodies, and their deliveries were equally solid.
Whether audience members were fans or not, their expectations for City and Colour were surely exceeded.
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Permalink | | Categories: ACL 2008: Saturday, ACL Festival
