Before Dallas Green played a single note, as he has done since the start of the Canadian tour of his popular folk project City and Color, he warned the audience gathered at the Videotron Center Saturday night that the time has come to be emotional (Quebec, let's get emotional!).
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Since he has a lot of ideas, what followed was a dirge, Meant To Be, the first track from his latest album, The Love Still Held Me Near.
Two songs later, Thirst plunged the knife into the wound of a breakup. Later, as an introduction to his ballad “We Found Each Other In The Dark,” the Ontario singer-songwriter, wearing a hat and a long beard, urged us all to be kinder to one another.
The pedal steel-embellished country-folk melodies “Two Coins” and “Hello, I'm in Delaware” underscore that Green can also create emotion with his soul-destroying voice.
Wild guitars
City and color in concert at the Videotron Center, Saturday evening. “Photo Didier Debusschere/Le Journal de Québec”
The City and Color concert, however, had its most exciting moments when heavy rocking guitars took over, underlining the quality of playing by Green and his four musicians.
“Runaway,” with its wall of guitars that drowned out even Green’s voice, had bite. The same goes for “Astronaut” and “Bow Down To Love”, both of which are well supported by heavy and euphoric dramatic build-ups.
In the minus column we note a tentative scenography for an arena show and sequences that sometimes lacked fluidity.
Nothing to spoil the experience and although Dallas Green isn't the most charismatic singer with the audience, it has to be said again that he has his heart in the right place.
What other touring artist thinks about recognizing the tireless work of their touring team? People “who didn’t sleep for three days to dismantle and rebuild everything” took the stage and without whom “we couldn’t do it,” he emphasized cautiously.
A well-deserved hat to the workers in the shadows.
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats: more than SOB.
Nathaniel Rateliff in concert at the Videotron Center, Saturday evening. “Photo Didier Debusschere/Le Journal de Québec”
As soon as Nathaniel Rateliff and the seven musicians of his Night Sweats clapped to the tune of the gospel-rock hymn SOB toward the end of their performance in the middle of the evening, phones lit up and screams of joy rang out outside the Videotron Center.
More than eight years after its release, SOB remains the cornerstone of the American collective's repertoire, but reducing Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats to a single song would be a mistake, as we discovered after a dynamic performance of folk, soul, rock and blues without Downtime.
With unsettling lightness and infectious energy, Rateliff and his band, among whom we must highlight the notable presence of a cleverly used brass section, have crammed 15 tracks into an hour, almost all of them from their album of the same name and “Tearing at the Seams”.
It was only the Rateliff-led project's second visit to Quebec, following a visit to Imperial in 2018.
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Ruby Waters: Sweet-strong-sweet
Ruby Waters in concert at the Videotron Center, Saturday evening. “Photo Didier Debusschere/Le Journal de Québec”
Little known to Quebec audiences, young Ontario native Ruby Waters is already on her second tour with City and Color. As she began her performance in front of empty stands, we quickly realized why.
In a soft-strong-soft formula reminiscent of the heyday of 1990s grunge, it combines folk songs with attractive melodies with rock segments.
Ruby Waters also has a gravelly voice and a casual look that give her that certain something that sets her apart from the rest of the wannabe celebrity crowd.
Will she achieve it? It remains to be seen, but the audience at the Videotron Center didn't seem indifferent.