club soda review

HAS INSTANT RAPPORT WITH CROWD. ONE SONG PROMPTED A SING-ALONG THAT WOULD HAVE FILLED THE BELL CENTRE

Author: Jordan Zivitz
Source: The Gazette
Date: October 24, 2003

David Usher is touring in support of a solo album called Hallucinations, but he's as clear-headed as ever on stage.

The Moist vocalist and erstwhile Montrealer's sold-out show at Club Soda on Wednesday was packed with believers who probably would have hung on Usher's every word if he started off hidden in the shadows with his back to the audience. But as ever, the singer (who performed again at the venue last night) played to the crowd from the outset of the opening number, the title track from his new album.

"I'm not feeling anything," Usher sang, and no matter how heartfelt his soul-plumbing lyrics are, at this point in time that one was a lie. The grin on his face proved it.

Since Moist went on a long-term hiatus and Usher's shows were scaled back to smaller venues, he has appeared to relish live performance more than ever. The intimacy is presumably a factor: his forearms spent a good part of the night in the clutches of fans, and he didn't take the affection as a security risk. Frequently singing directly to those at the front of the house, Usher has reclaimed a living-room connection with his audience that couldn't help but be diluted when Moist moved into the big leagues almost right out of the gate.

Not that he's forgotten the sense of drama that took him there. Jesus Was My Girl had all the rock-icon poses demanded by the insistent foundation laid by bassist Jeff Pearce. Resurrection revisited the darker, more desperate lyrics of Moist, and My Way Out yielded a sing-along that could have rung out from the Bell Centre rafters.

Halfway through the night, guitarist Gerry Finn teased Usher with the intro to Rush's Closer to the Heart. "I was really hoping for Whitesnake or Bon Jovi," Usher retorted. "You got any Poison?" Finn obliged with a few bars of Talk Dirty to Me before returning to the matter at hand with Time Of Our Lives, from Hallucinations.

The exchange exemplified the approach of Usher's band (which includes Moist alumni Pearce and keyboardist Kevin Young, as well as former Me Mom and Morgentaler member Kim Bingham on guitar): impressive rapport over white-hot electricity. Usher might not have blown the roof off of Club Soda, but he brought the walls in tight.

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