Luke Doucet's Set

Luke Doucet w. Melissa McLelland (Zaphods, November 24, 2006)

If you've never been to Zaphod's, it's quite a weird place. It's like an awkward Mod Club, for anyone out there from Toronto. Tables surround a dancing area, and there's a big pillar standing on the dance floor, whose dance moves you could easily mistake for mine. I managed to find some standing room just behind the pillar so that it resembled one of the guys on stage - a sort of darkened and uncarved statue, unmoving and unemotional in its detachment. As the concert went on, the pillar seemed to fade out of my perspective - it wasn't so much the music that did it as it was the peformance.

Luke Doucet, you see, is a guitar magi. And not in an Yngwie Maalmsteen kind of way. More like in a blues kind of way. He is an accomplished musician and performer. He plays naturally. He sings naturally. He chats to the audience naturally. He makes it look easy. He's one of those guys who could walk into a bar anywhere in the world, grab a guitar, and get a crowd formed around him. He breathes music. He commands attention through his talent. He has no pretensions.

The music itself however could best be described as traditionalist. Blues and broken hearts, a style and theme as ubiquitous as the pillar hiding my view. To see a band as talented as this one revel in those traditions is both impressive and wanting. They do what they love and love what they do, but it is the band's vision that loses focus in the set. Songs bleed into one another, buoyed and balanced only by the creative guitar and subtle arrangement alterations. Songs about booze and heartache, hope, redemption, unrequited love and loss. Should I expect anything more? Perhaps commiseration is their perspective, not rock stardom. Perhaps I'm just supposed to listen.

Melissa McLelland, wife and rhythm guitar, added slow and smoky vocals, and a much needed change in the set dynamics. Though she played sparsely tonight, as an acoustic guitarist she is fantastic. I saw her open alone on stage to a packed club in Toronto, her and a skirt and an acoustic guitar and a drum machine. Impressive.

Luke Doucet and Melissa McLelland may not help you change the world, but they'll give you something to strive for along the way - talent. 7.5/10