Hawksley Workman

First off:

Damn, Hawksley
I didn't know you had it in you.

I feel like the best way to describe the first Music Hall Show is as three shows rolled into one:

Opener: The Midget People Players
Main Act: Hawksley Workman and the Symphonic Wolves
Closer: The Hawksleyphonic Spree

I don't have words adequate for how much good was wrought seeing Hawksley and Lonely on their set of smallest piano and drum kit ever, with them and the whole band behind them sporting springy antennae. I laughed and laughed and laughed. It very much personified the fun Hawks we had seen previously STOMPing it out with broom handles on the Music Hall stage. The most memorable part of the Midget People Players songs had to be Lonely hammering away on his tiny piano during Every Creepy Pusher--stopping only to further contort his gangly frame to reach the mic on top of his tiny piano. That's the most unique character I've ever seen come out of Lonely, and he may just have upstaged Hawksley in doing it.

From this start as the Midget People Players, the band moved to more earnest, more familiar ground. This set of Hawksley and the Symphonic Wolves songs were clean, perfect Hawksley. The addition of the new band and all the breadth and depth they bring with them was so very welcome. A violin solo in When the Mountains were the Seashore? A flute in Smoke? Jessie's (?) beautiful operatic backup vocals in everything in between? Though te Delicious Wolves may be a thing of the past, the new Symphonic Wolves definitely fill and may be busting out of the old band's shoes as they take tried and true Hawksley tunes in new and interesting directions. They even treat us to something wholly new and different in the form of a touching tune about spending Christmas trapped in an airport, with other peoples' loved ones--with Hawksley shining his shoes and reading the poetry in the world--in what might be called In A Couple More Days.

Between the Midget People Players and the new Symphonic Wolves, this would have well been enough to make up your standard Hawksley Workman show.

But no. Hawksley's got one more trick up his sleeve. And he plays out his last metamorphosis while singing of how we're turning him into a hermaphrodite fish. "Hermaphroditty, subterranian, aquasexual delish" and BAM, he's got on a green coverall and a familiar looking camo cap. By the time he wraps up Organic Coast, the Symphonic Wolves are coming back on stage, but they, too, have donned matching green coveralls, though they lack the camo caps of el capitaine. Still, the effect is one of uniformity, making the name "The Hawksleyphonic Spree" seems somewhat appropriate. And this wardrobe change begins to make sense just as soon as they're all back to their instruments and they get back to playing. Kicking off the last set with Striptease, they get down, and they get dirty, bringing the until-now-docile audience to their feet with the rocking tunes that it feels like we haven't heard in a while. Hawksley drums, Lonely pianos, and Jessie (god I hope I remembered that right) kicks the crap out of a cowbell. And the rock is the perfect end to a show that started light and got serious. Large Obnoxious Guy with White Toque near the front of the theater screams out "don't stop the rocking," and though we all cringe at his uncouthness, we agree in secrecy. It is so good to see Hawksley as he appears to rediscover the energetic material of his earlier records and he is able to reimagine it with his new band.

But, of course, it is all over too soon, and with a rendition of Ice Age just as solid as he and Lonely have ever been on that song, he sends us off into the snowy Toronto night--bleary eyed, vibrating, and wishing that we had caught just one glimpse of that ever elusive Pomegranate Daffodil!

 
All in all, it was, likely, the best Hawksley show I've ever attended...which is saying something because I never thought anything could top the We Will Still Need a Song singalong at Massey Hall. We got to see the heartfelt, emotional Hawksley we seem to have seen a lot of lately, but we also were treated to his fun and crazy side, as well as his rock-y side. If the Saturday show winds up being as solid and diverse as the Friday show, anyone with tickets is in for one heck of a treat.

- Nicholas Quill