>>PREVIEW
BOB WISEMAN
Saturday, May 19
Marquee Room
When Bob Wiseman played Mount Royal College’s Liberty Lounge last year, he showed himself to be remarkably adept at dividing his audience. The bulk of the crowd was presumably there to discover whether or not omnipresent Torontonian Owen Pallett (a.k.a. Final Fantasy) really does poo clouds, and weren’t exactly familiar with Wiseman’s work when he took the stage.
What followed was a multimedia medley of performance art, independent film, theatre and live music from a naïve-looking and somewhat nasal gentleman. Half the crowd immediately found themselves drawn in by Wiseman’s unorthodox performance, while the other half crossed their arms and did their best to remain unimpressed.
That sort of defensiveness is common when a musician tries to bring a different tack to a rock show. Audiences seem to associate pre-planning with pretension, and getting them to drop their guard is no easy task. But Wiseman isn’t interested in the straightforward approach.
"I think there are many people like me in Toronto, that is to say people who come from smaller cities, I’m from Winnipeg, who thrive in a big city where everything is happening at once," says Wiseman. "In my small way I try to jump into some other art forms, explore what I can do and bring it to my music world. And the fact that there are 500,000,000 singer songwriters out there further propels me to create other ways to bring people into my particular world of song."
Wiseman’s musical past is as varied as his stage shows. He moved to Toronto from Winnipeg to seek a career as a musician and found it when he joined the initial lineup of Blue Rodeo. With his very first band, Wiseman found himself whisked off to play for Carson, Letterman and even Meryl Streep. He was more successful than he’d ever hoped for, and maybe more than he wanted.
"Blue Rodeo was an amazing thing," he admits. "I was a pipsqueak from Winnipeg, broke and grappling with the fact that my pianistic talent was something which there probably was no audience for, and suddenly that was entirely eclipsed by this band, the first band I had ever been in, outgrowing its clothes with every gig. Those were thrilling episodes. But there was shit as well and it brought me down. I decided it would be regrettable to go through life being only the guy who backs up Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy. I was right."
So Wiseman left the band to focus on his own projects, running the gamut from "prepared piano" pieces (where objects like paper, coins and vegetables are placed between the piano strings) to more straightforward folk-pop songwriting. And as a musical hired gun, he’s found himself onstage with artists ranging from Wilco to the Wallflowers, and in the studio with the Barenaked Ladies, the Hidden Cameras, and his aforementioned tourmate Final Fantasy, among many others.
On this latest tour, Wiseman is focusing on the multimedia side of his performance. He’s been touring the country with like-minded ally Jason Trachtenberg and his Slideshow Conception, though Trachtenberg unfortunately won’t be in Calgary due to personal obligations. And audiences need not be wary of pretence. Wiseman’s videos may be unusual, but they’re also meant to be enjoyed, not meticulously analyzed.
"Over the years I witnessed many people using film but it rarely made any sense to me," explains Wiseman. "Most folks seemed proud to show something that had no linear story or relationship with what they were doing and then we would be left to enjoy the ‘accidental’ cool moments, but that wasn't especially exciting to me. I hope the addition of film, video and animated works in my performances do not leave people bored or annoyed with lack of meaning."
At least this time, they’ll know what to expect. |
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