I'm still crazy busy at work, but WXPN's keeps having some pretty hard-to-resist acts at their Friday Free-at-Noon shows lately, so I keep going.
Two Fridays ago it was the Great Lake Swimmers. This Canadian band's latest album, Ongiara, is definitely what some folks would call a "grower" - it might not do much for you at first, but it grows on you after a while. Luckily, that's not the case in when they're in concert (especially since they only played for 35 minutes), where their sound instantly grabs your attention.
Singer Tony Dekker is the low-key leader of a low-key band, but that doesn't mean that their music is restrained - he's backed by some pretty talented musicians playing some very interesting music. The music's just a bit quieter is all. And that just serves to highlight Dekker's crisp vocals and strong lyrics.
I was surprised that the relatively-unknown band drew a pretty respectable-sized crowd for the lunchtime concert. I'm sure that for a lot of the folks there it was their first time hearing the Great Lake Swimmers, but from the way that the band kept the audience's attention I'd be willing to bet that quite a few of them came away impressed. I was already impressed with the band before I got there, so I was just happy that they played a good mix of old and new songs.
As always, NPR has posted the concert at their site, and I've got a few photos at my flickr page.
There was a really good crowd for Great Lake Swimmers at the Tin Angel that night, too.
Posted by: Jay | 2007.06.19 at 10:44 AM