How can I possibly express how much joy seeing this band play a show brings? There's absolutely no way - you just have to go see them. The Boy Least Likely To kicked off a tour in Vancouver, just a couple months after playing here opening for James Blunt. Now playing the much-smaller, more intimate Plaza Club (as opposed to the lavish and enormous Orpheum Theatre), they brought along Torontonian bippity-boppers The Bicycles for the ride. When I arrived, the Bicycles were on stage, coursing through an entertaining set involving matching "B" t-shirts, handmade merchandise, intricate clapping routines, and rotating lead singers. It was pretty astounding how easily they switched around - a snappy and ass-kicking female drummer who kept an even singing voice while pounding the skins, various members who are just as at home bashing a tambourine as they are weilding a guitar, and heck, even the saxophone came out to play, courtesy of Andrew Scott, who we've seen here recently doing brick-wall-climbing acrobatics with the Meligrove Band. Obviously having fun on stage, I also marvelled at one of the members' childlike singing voice. Wow! They schilled roomates' bands and touted their wares and really got the room in the mood for the shiny fun that was to follow.







On to TBLLT. Their bright banner filled with blank-stare animals playing instruments had been draped across the back wall for the whole show so far. While the memory of their Orpheum show was fresh in my mind, this environment brought a new and fantastic thread to their intricate tapestry. They knew this was their show and that they had control over the room, which I might add was pretty full for a Tuesday night with a relatively new UK band. Looking at the audience, I can't imagine a darn lot of them would have been the sort to attend a James Blunt show, so this was definitely an impressive turnout. The guys were in a great mood, looking far more at home and filling more effectively the smaller stage space (still a pretty good-sized stage for a mid-sized club though). The set list seemed long when I looked at it, but a few of their songs clock in at a minute or less, so it was shorter than it seemed. Aside from the lovely array of percussion and cute melodies and lifting harmonies and deliriously-happy-yet-terribly-creepy-and-depressing lyrics, much of the set time and interest stemmed from the band members inter-song comedy routine. Hilarious! They seemed good-natured before, but this was amazing. Certainly the good timing and ever-present chuckling by the smiling band won't come across perfectly here but I'll do my best to include a few missives.







They went through most of their album in some sort of random order, tossing in a few new ones here. "This one is brand new. Unless you've been at our rehearsals, you've never heard it. And I don't recognize any of you. Anyways, we're bound to screw it up." They played the song, then afterwards proclaimed how polite we were for clapping because every single one of them screwed up the song somehow. Another new tune was called "Oddballs," which sometimes-singer Jof Owen declared a song "for everyone who's crap at sports. Who here is crap at sports?" Everyone cheered.







Before beginning the spooky "Monsters" track, they discussed their hometown of Wendover and the nearby town they went to school in. Randomly, other-sometimes-singer Pete Hobbs chimed in that his grandmother comes from Winnipeg. Owen stopped and looked at him oddly. "What does that have to do with anything?" he asked. "Well, I feel like I belong here. Canada is a beautiful place." Somewhere partway through the set, Owen mentioned that since their album is only 37 minutes long, they don't really have enough music to make up a whole set so they decided to do a cover. They asked the audience to guess the cover based on a couple of clues. "He's a famous British singer who has had hits in the 80's, the 90's and in the 21st Century," said Owen. "Oh wait quick cover up your set lists! Hurry up! Whoever guesses gets to sleep with the bassist." Things were shouted out all over the crowd. David Bowie was the only one I caught, but the band looked around at each person who shouted something out until someone got the right answer. "Oh you peeked, didn't you?" They still gave the fellow the prize, turning towards their bassist and stating "you get to sleep with this lovely gentleman tonight. What's your name?" "Thomas," said the man in the crowd. Well it turns out it was George Michael, and The Boy Least Likely To did an unexpected chipper version of "Faith." That was so cool, with this trundling beat and silly noises. They really made it their own tune.







About half way down the set list, people started leaving the stage. Owen instructed people to clap them back for an encore, but really, it was just a cull for Owen and Hobbs to be up there alone to sing a song "about a horrible drink. Well, he drinks it [Owen indicates Hobbs], but he's cheap." "Warm Panda Cola" was the snappy little song, and at the end, Hobbs rolls into a brief harmonica bit, after which he mentioned he'd put his harmonica too high and it was impossible to play. Someone told him to try it again. He declined. Then there was question and answer time. Someone asked if they were married. Owen spoke up." Married? Oh no, we're just friends." Har har. Someone else yelled that they could get married in Vancouver, to which the guys laughed and reiterated, "we're just friends!" "Are you related to Michael J. Fox?" asked someone of Owen. As the rest of the band snuck on stage along to some introductions, they announced the bassist as being single.. "oh no wait, not tonight... Thomas!" Hobbs spoke through gales of laughter. Their drummer came forth for a rare moment in the spotlight. "May I say something? Just quickly please... thanks. Well I just wanted to say it's lovely to be in Vancouver, since this may be my last time here..." This surprised Owen, who asked why on earth this would be his last time here. "Well, you never know, I mean, we could be in a car crash tomorrow..." Everyone laughed and told him he was being pessimistic.







Well that takes care of some key humourous moments, but what of the music? Well, it was fantastic. Such fun. The stage show was lively, with Owen leaping and punching the air and flinging about as though he were playing a set of drums that completely encircled his body. Foot stomping and more elaborate clapping, and as mentioned, lots of fun little percussion things. The music itself chimes and rings, is infectuously dancey and you really can't help but get a smile on your face, even though they're talking about guns and spiders the whole time. Highlights were "I'm Glad I Hitched My Apple Wagon To Your Star," the cover of "Faith," and the set-ending "Be Gentle With Me," which unleashed a bounty of bubbles into the air at the front of the stage as the band leapt and laughed their way to the tail of the night.



And... they were selling little animal stickers.

Elsewhere

By Andy Scheffler
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : May, 2006.