Jon Langford at the Berkeley Church

Toronto's Berkeley Church hosted a series of concerts earlier this year that were shot for television. I attended three of them: My Morning Jacket; a British Sea Power/Yo La Tengo double-bill; and another double-bill featuring guitarist Kaki King and then Jon Langford backed by The Sadies' Dallas and Travis Good and The Burlington Welsh Male Chorus.

Many of my friends attended the Langford taping, since we've developed a relationship with the Mekons and Waco Brothers frontman over the years, and some of us spent much of the rest of that night swapping stories and drinking Guinness. I shared a cab with Travis Good to get home around 4 a.m.

A lot of those same people (but sadly not the performers this time) gathered together again at the same party central location on Wednesday evening to enjoy delicious pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, jalapeno corn bread (thanks, Tara) and beer to watch the Langford episode that aired as part of The Berkeley Sessions series on Bravo!

We were expecting an hour-long show, but it was only 30 minutes (including commercials). Since there were lots of cameras shooting the show from various angles, and we were near the front of the stage, we got lots of TV time. And though the show was well-edited, much of what makes a Langford performance so endearing — his jokes, offhand comments and repartee with the crowd — didn't make the cut. Neither did several excellent songs. So while you'd never know about the sound issues that plagued the brothers Good or Langford's major cold that affected his voice by watching the program, part of the charm was missing.

But it's hard to complain about getting together with good friends while enjoying good food and beer to watch a favourite artist.

Four more episodes of The Berkeley Sessions will air over the next four Wednesdays (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT) on Bravo!. You can see Sarah Slean on Sept. 24, Jim White on Oct. 1, Kaki King on Oct. 8 and Pete Elkas on Oct. 15.