For a man who I’ve been told is not a big fan of touring, Chad VanGaalen seemed to be having a mighty good time tonight. His set was planned playfully and masterfully, stunning the already hushed crowd to new extremes of silence with the opening line “maybe if I shaved my pussy then you’d love me” from new album Diaper Island’s closing track, sparse accompaniment provided solo on ukulele. The set was layered up slowly, starting stripped down and building up to a gigantic crescendo as the full band launched into the album’s opener 'Do Not Fear' - which came across like Chad and his band had snuck up behind it during the night and injected it with wild bear hormones. A majestic monster of a song that the album version merely hints at.
The whistled refrain of 'Sara' led into another impassioned rendition of one of Diaper Island’s highlights, a mellow number and yet pulsing with emotion, building up and up into an anthemic chorus. A possible hint at why the man seemed so well at ease tonight came with his heartfelt declaration that the Brudenell is “the best club in the world”, as he and his bandmates played a wonky rendition of happy birthday to proprietor and promoter Nathan. This was followed by older material such as 'Willow Tree' and 'Electric Light' from previous album Soft Airplane, which sits well alongside the new, perhaps a little more alt.country than the urgent rockingness of new numbers like 'Burning Photographs'. The noisy breakdowns way noisier than on record, and reminiscent of Sebadoh at their loosest and loudest, the band really cutting loose and thrashing about. 'Freedom For A Policeman' with its urgent riff comes across like Clinic at their most intelligible, before the set is closed with the slow burning 'Rabid Bits Of Time', which the band again manage to inflate to several times its original size, creating a huge expanse ending with the poignant line: “No one knows where we go when we’re dead or when we’re dreaming”.
There’s an overwhelming demand for an encore and just as it seems that it might be way too passé to return to the stage, Chad and his band do exactly that with a couple of final numbers, finishing on the beautiful 'Somewhere I Know There Is Nothing' from Chad’s 2004 debut Inifiniheart which, translated from an acoustic song to electric, seems to pick up a hint of fellow Calgary band Women, whose bassist Matt accompanies Chad on this tour on guitar. (Chad produced both of Women’s critically acclaimed albums as well as all of his own). The one disappointment tonight was that for an artist who takes so much interest in the visual side of his music, designing his own album artwork as well as several awesome animated videos, there is no visual element to the show. It’s of very small concern though when such expansive songs are performed with this much passion and presented with such genuine charm. Although he seemed somewhat awkward to begin with from the grin on his face it’s hard to imagine that Chad could possibly dislike touring.