Accordion virtuoso Geoff Berner plays a rousing set of modernized, socially-conscious klezmer music to an appreciative Montreal audience.
Geoff Berner and his band raised plastic shot glasses of whisky before they started their set at their August 28 show in Montreal. The evening had already been stretched out longer than anticipated because-typical of a Montreal audience-the majority of the crowd was showing up an hour late for this Monday night performance.
Nevertheless, Berner and crew would not be discouraged. They threw the empty cups at the floor and launched into the title track of Berner's most recent album, Whiskey Rabbi. The song's exotic, intoxicating melody seemed to turn the run-of-the-middle venue into a smoky Eastern European café. Two incredibly talented violin players added contrapuntal parts that could be alternately sexy, smart, gentle or chaotic.
Berner plays songs full of gritty, dirty European streets, copious amounts of alcohol, and socio-political commentary. His writing frequently captures the ongoing battle between the harsh realities and beautiful ideals that make up the average life. And in the process, he returns again and again to such subjects as luck, disease, hope, persecution, and of course more drinking.
All of these ideas seemed to coalesce in an inspired rendition of "Song Written in a Romanian Hospital." This track, like many of Berner's, is build around a traditional klezmer sound with violins screaming and the accordion bouncing faster and faster until the band seems like they will collapse into a frenetic, cacophonous heap on the stage.
One of the evening's many highlights came in the form of a new song entitled "Weep Bride Weep." The song invokes a Jewish wedding tradition when the band and the guests gather around the bride to sing a sad song in an attempt to make her cry. In Berner's version, however, everything becomes twisted into a hilarious commentary on marriage in general.
In the end, Berner provided listeners with a quirky, inspired evening of introspective music. Standards such as "Clown and Bard" and "Maginot Line" felt fresh and vibrant, and won over the receptive audience, neophytes and veteran fans alike.
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