LIVE: Cowboy Junkies Revisit Trinity Session On Stage
Monday February 25, 2008 @ 04:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

February 23, 2008
Massey Hall
Toronto, Ontario
By Jared Morano

Too often I find Cowboy Junkies fans all too willing to reduce the band to that seminal breakthrough album, The Trinity Session. It gets treated with a sanctity it deserves, but that should apply to the rest of the Junkies' catalogue as well. The band have been recording for more than 20 years. Can't we find something more to like about them?

Regardless, the Junkies have stopped trying to convince us otherwise. With 2007's CD/DVD package Trinity Revisited and Saturday's recital of the entire album, the band seem eager to mythologize the recording made on Nov. 27, 1987 at Church Of The Holy Trinity even further amongst its zealous devotees — one of those devotees, alt-country misfit Ryan Adams, was supposed to open but canceled due to sickness.

Of course, it has more to do with marketing than heartfelt nostalgia. This concert is most likely an attempt to get back in touch with a public that's gradually lost interest in the Junkies over the decades. It's sort of like the Grammys. It's a night where a group of people reward themselves for past successes in an attempt to remind everyone else they still exist. Whatever. Questionable motivations considered, I still love The Trinity Session and I'm always down for a lovefest in its honour.

I get the sense the Cowboy Junkies love the album, too. Their performance had all the atmosphere and reverence of the source material. It was the type of concert where the energy was created by its absence. The quiet breaks were just as climactic as the full-on choruses. There was also vitality in the way the musicians played off each other.

Since much of it was improvised I knew I couldn't rely on my expectations and felt obligated to pay close attention to each note, which wasn't always the correct one. That made it all the more captivating.

Even more importantly, I could tell they were listening to each other more closely than I was. Most of the songs were free-form jams built off a simple three-chord rhythm pattern. It takes a golden ear and strong relationships with the other members of the band to fit into that sort of sound without overpowering it.

Peter Bird — who played mandolin, fiddle, harmonica and as vocalist Margo Timmins described, "shaky things" — added the most. Despite Bird's prominence he played with restraint, not flash, even when fuzzing his mandolin through Led Zeppelin-worthy distortion. Visually, the image of-58 year old accordionist Jaro Czerwinec swaying in his chair and nodding cues to Margo will probably stick with me the longest.

Each musician was dressed in elegant black and, aside from bassist Alan Anton, sat throughout the performance. It was the type of show where musicians left the stage when they weren't playing, even if just for a short instrumental section. Margo was absolutely still through each piece, whether perched on her stool or hunched over her microphone. It might have been uncomfortable had she not joked early on about the band's resistance to move around onstage. They are more of a band to hear than see, right down to the erection of an ugly plastic drum screen designed to prevent the sound of the drums from bleeding through to the other musician's microphones. Thankfully, there were enough bouquets of flowers and coloured lights onstage to prevent it from being a total eyesore. Something should also be said for Massey Hall's sky-high ceilings and dated decor. It suited the moody drug ballads in a way other Junkies haunts like The Rivoli never could.

My favourite songs from The Trinity Session were the older interpretations — "Blue Moon Revisited," "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and "Working On A Building" — because they sounded unique when reinterpreted by the Junkies. They were handled well, along with the album's single, a version of The Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane." Despite their downcast manner the band were excited to play through the standards.

By the time they got to closer "Walking After Midnight" the concert had become more of a celebration than a recital. After a short break, the Junkies came back and reminded us they had a dozen albums besides The Trinity Session by performing four other popular songs, "My Little Basquiat," "Cause Cheap Is How I Feel," "The Anniversary Song" and a cover of Neil Young's "Powderfinger."