| The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour |
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| Written by Rob van Alstyne | |
| Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 02:28 PM | |
 The WeakerthansReunion Tour www.theweakerthans.org www.myspace.com/theweakerthans Unlike most bands whose roots lie in the world of punk, the Weakerthans don’t go about things quickly. These days neither the Winnipeg band’s songs, the majority of which can be comfortably categorized as mid-tempo, nor their album releases (Reunion Tour arrives a long four years after Reconstruction Site), come fast and furious. At this point, whatever traces of his past as the bassist in foul-mouthed-political-punks Propaghandi vocalist/guitarist John K. Samson still bares are not of the musical variety. This is far from a bad thing, however, as the Weakerthans do ‘mellow’ better than most and there’s still enough visceral crackle in the band’s sound – just check Stephen Carroll’s stinging guitar leads on album opener “Civil Twilight” - to keep those listeners craving volume from getting overly antsy. Reunion Tour is largely a meditative album, built around winningly simple melodic figures spun out on keyboards and guitars with the occasional instrumental cameo from a banjo, pedal steel or trumpet. As always with the Weakerthans, instrumentation tells less than half the story. Front man Samson has long been lauded as one of the most creative and literary-minded lyricists working in the indie-rock game today – the band’s been known to tour with a bookmobile in addition to the standard merch table set up - and he lives up to his reputation as a faded-t-shirt-sporting-man-of-letters throughout Reunion Tour. Coming through with another set of big-hearted empathetic character studies and rueful reminiscences delivered in a reedy voice that makes up what it lacks in range in sheer emotive heft, Samson’s lyrics are that rare construction sturdy enough to impact a listener when stripped of musical accompaniment. Whether spinning tales from the perspective of a broken-hearted bus driver (“And they bite their mitts off to show me transfers, deposit change / And I can’t stop finding your face in their faces all rearranged”) or of a musician reflecting on his now defunct band’s youthful past (“The daily prayers of set lists / Tender jokes about retards and crashes and queers / I lost the chiming ring of keys to everything”) Samson’s words never fail to hit squarely on the mark. That doesn’t mean he should ditch the music altogether, though, which is something he comes dangerously close to doing on the ponderous near-spoken word piece “Elegy for Gump Worsley,” the similarly unmoored “Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure” leave little musical impression. On the majority of tracks, however, Samson’s humanist battle cries are set to equally compelling tunes, resulting in a welcome new chapter of heartfelt musings from one of the sharpest bands working in indie-rock today. "Sun In An Empty Room" from Reunion Tour "Night Windows" from Reunion Tour Watch the first in a series of official "webisodes" about the making of Reconstruction Site (check out anti.com for the rest). COMING UP: The Weakerthans with opening acts Jeremy Fisher and Last Town Chorus (also on Reveille: an inteview with Megan Hickey of The Last Town Chorus by Andrea Myers) on Tuesday, September 25, at the Triple Rock Social Club . 5 p.m. All Ages. $15. |
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| Last Updated: Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 08:43 AM |
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