Friday night is frequently dubbed the week’s party night—wherein completely letting loose on the dance floor or rocking out to bouncy or gritty beats with beer in hand is the ritual, the expectation. It was not that sort of Friday night at the Black Cat. While AC Newman of New Pornographers fame gained notoriety writing catchy-as-hell power pop, the Friday night release he provided was more of a pretty and relaxing exhale.
The master hook writer proved that from the onset with Shut Down the Streets‘s opener, “I’m Not Talking” that he still has a great grasp on what “pop” is even though he’s dialed down the “power.” The album still has a couple of bouncy tracks like “Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns” wherein his “bah bah bahs” and “whoa whoa whoas” would snake their way into the audience’s feet and brains, leaving the floor a rapt bunch of toe-tappers and head bobbers. Yet, even the minor-key ballads that populate much of Newman’s latest release (and as such, made up a good quarter of Friday night’s set) came complete with well-crafted harmonies backed by flute and keyboards.
In fact, the multi-instrumentalist who played flute and melodica and the keyboardist gave the audience the most touching “Awww” moment of the night when they stood together swaying back and forth in the back of the stage during The Slow Wonder’s “Drink to Me Babe, Then.” It was the sort of sweet moment that kept the slow moments of the set from getting too sleepy. Part of that is that Newman himself is such a stoic performer, barely changing facial expressions as he strummed his guitar and tapped his feet, that the audience mirrored his mood. Even the occasional jokes he cracked, like saying, “This is where Obama lives, right?” at the show’s beginning, came through with a dry delivery.
Yet, the set wasn’t bogged down with the slow burners. Newman intelligently paced the set with happy infectious numbers like “The Miracle Drug,” “Secretarial” and “The Changeling (Get Guilty)” to give the set a quick jolt of caffeine. Even the encore captured the duality of his catalog, starting with new ballad, “There’s Money in New Wave” and ending with “The Town Halo,” which Newman called “The most rocking song of all…of the small selection of songs that I’ve written.” It was a very balanced performance, but sometimes after a week of workplace insanity, balance is the best thing that could happen to a Friday night.
