City and Colour

Malkin Bowl

Sept 17, 2007

 

On Monday night City and Colour stopped through Vancouver’s Stanley Park to entertain crowds after playing four back-to-back shows in Toronto. Writing since his early teens, the one man show, emerged when singer/songwriter Dallas Green released a  limited edition EP of acoustic tracks. With the help of the internet the EP began to circulate around the world leaving eager fans chomping at the bit for more. In November 2005 under the name, City and Colour, Dallas released his solo, acoustic debut album “Sometimes”. 

 

Attack in Black kicked off the show, performing double duties, opening and also doubling as a backing band for City and Colour with  Daniel on drums and Spencer on bass. Dallas emerged onstage with a simple “Hi” before opening with the unreleased track “Forgive Me”.   Attack in black members helped out Green for a few tracks picking up the energy and switching up the sound. All the tracks off of “Sometimes” have a similar very distinct sound, an acoustic, mellow, slow, melodic rhythm, however the addition of drums and bass, was excellent in picking up the tempo.

 

The set up was simple, just Dallas and electric/acoustic guitar. The show was stripped down, no fancy lights, no decked out backdrop, only Dallas’ melodic and soft voice belting out his tracks. Often he sat simple by himself at center stage, on a stool, as the audience stood dead silent, soaking up his performance. 

 

Dallas bantered with the crowd, telling jokes, and taking the time out to thank everybody for coming out, and taking an interest because he stated, “ I know its cold, so I really, really appreciate you coming-” before being cut off by shouts from the audience, in which he replied “ Hey, I’m trying to say thank you”.

 

With only one album under his belt, Dallas mixed up his set, performing three cover songs along with a few tracks off of his debut, like “Coming home” and “Day Old Hate”.  He also showcased a number of new songs giving fans a taste of the upcoming album. One of the highlights of the show was his rendition of Alexisonfire’s single “Boiled frogs” because the original song is mixed with harsh vocals and a band, but Dallas stripped, and slowed it down, giving the track a interesting spin. 

 

Before leaving the crowd, Dallas stated this was the last song and launched into “Sometimes” reworking the track slightly mixing in a few lines off of Justin Timberlake’s “My love”. A large majority of the tracks he played had different arraignments, even new tracks he played of up his upcoming album, were played differently because  he explained he wanted fans to have something to look forward to when his second record comes out.  

 

For his encore, he reemerged playing two more tracks, a new song which he introduced as a track about the realization of “being a jerk”, and the crowd favorite “Save Your Scissors”. After hoots and hollers for more, Dallas apologized, “sorry noise curfew”, but if it weren’t for the strike, “we could play till four in the morning”, as the show was originally scheduled for Vancouver’s Orpheum Theater, but took place outside in Stanley Park because of labor disputes.  

 

City and Colour put on a great show, with the audience almost memorized by his soft vocal stylings, and simple guitar strums. However, the only drawback is because the music is clam and the whole debut CD is acoustic, the songs tend to blend together, and sound similar. Its almost too much acoustics, but the backing band and cover songs helped balance out the calm atmosphere. Dallas will take a break away from his side project as he gears up to head out on tour with Alexisonfire until mid-December across America, and The United Kingdom before ending in Canada.