THUNDER BAY – The stockings were hung by the drummer with care, in hopes the Barenaked Ladies soon would be there.
The Canadian icons not only showed up, but delivered, performing a smattering of hits to a nearly sold-out Thunder Bay Community Auditorium crowd on Tuesday night, while sprinkling the rest of their set list with holiday favourites – including a Black Sabbath-inspired metal-y of Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Silent Night and Deck the Halls.
The Hometown Holidays tour began last year as a one-off event before expanding to a cross-country journey in 2022. Lead singer Ed Robertson, bassist Jim Creegan, drummer Tyler Stewart and vocalist and guitarist Kevin Hearn should certainly find their way to Santa’s good list after their latest show, which opened with the Carol of the Bells and closed with The Old Apartment, their one-song encore finale.
Not ones to ignore their surroundings, they even did an impromptu, on-the-spot, Wayne Brady-like song about Finnish pancakes, the band earning plenty of applause for adopting the local culture and promoting the local cuisine.
“I got a side of Finnish pancakes, and I thought, just what is the difference between a Finnish pancake and a crepe?” Robertson asked, a gasp or two echoing through the air at the very thought of the comparison.
“To a layman, they’re awfully similar.”
He might have a new hit on his hands.
“They’re not actually from Finland,” he crooned. “They’re so delicious, and their buttery goodness is just a fork-length, from my hand. Why are they Finnish, you might ask? Well I’ll tell you, because I did the research and I’m up to this task. Finnish people migrated to Northern Ontario back in the day and they needed something they could prepare easily in the bush with readily available ingredients.”
OK, so it’s not One Week or even the theme from the Big Bang Theory, both of which the Barenaked Ladies did play later in the show.
But it could be the theme song for the new Hoito Restaurant, when it rises from the ashes in the very near future.
Holiday songs performed included Green Christmas, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, I Have a Little Dreidel, I Saw Three Ships and, saving the best for (almost) last, Jingle Bells, which started in low, and then started to grow, the crowd bursting into laughter when Robertson paused and added the Jingle Bells, Batman smells verse loved by kids of all ages.
Never ones to disappoint, the Barenaked Ladies ‘reluctantly’ played a few fan favourites – but only reluctantly, Robertson said, joking fans are always asking them to “lay off the cavalcade of monumental radio hits."
“Flying in the face of that, we’re going to play a song off our first record, Gordon.”
The crowd erupted as the band launched into song: “Enid, we never really knew each other any way…”
Other highlights included If I Had $1,000,000 and Feliz Navidad, the song made famous by its author, Jose Feliciano.
All in all, it was a fun show that set the holiday mood to good tidings of comfort and joy.
