Julie Doiron Takes Notes From Calvin Johnson

There are a lot of parallels you can draw between Calvin Johnson and Julie Doiron.

Both were stars of the early '90s indie rock scene (Johnson with Beat Happening and Doiron with Eric's Trip). Both have a taste for collaboration (Johnson with Jon Spencer, Beck and Built To Spill's Doug Martsch, Doiron with Gord Downie and the Wooden Stars). And both are now flying solo, specializing in spare, kid-friendly indie folk.

As a result, pairing the two for a gig at Toronto's Music Gallery was a bit of a no-brainer. Johnson's froggy vocals might be diametrically opposed to Doiron's swoony lilt, but, otherwise, these artists are very much on the same page.

Johnson played first and brought the weirdness like only he can. Armed with acoustic guitar and an empty stage, he strummed and lurched his way through an hour-long set of tunes largely culled from his three solo discs. Admittedly, Johnson's recent output is very much an acquired taste.

Yet, stripped bare and presented with little more than vocals and a few stray chords, he managed to straddle the line between cutesy and creepy like few can. As a result, he can get away with such unsettling tunage as "Rabbit's Blood" and still seem like the proverbial man-child by its conclusion.

Johnson managed to squeeze in a couple of Halo Benders covers for good measure, including "Your Asterik" by request and "Lonesome Sundown," on which he was joined by Doiron on vocals. Constantine Will Kidman also showed up mid-set to play drums. It was a solid showing overall, and one that was more or less devoid of Johnson's patented stage banter, save for a 10-minute soliloquy about the upcoming Sappy Music Festival.

Doiron did her solo thing next and the most memorable aspect of the set was a lengthy diatribe about the perils of highway traffic (she must've been taking notes from Johnson on how to draw out your stage banter). The rant seemed positively out of place for the normally subdued singer-songwriter, but it was delivered with a calm, near apologetic tone that was strangely endearing.

Doiron kept things on the level otherwise and played a selection of tunes with quiet restraint. There's an inherent sadness to Doiron's vocals even when she's clearly enjoying herself. A world weariness always comes through in her playing, best demonstrated on "Swan Pond" and her Broken Girl masterstroke, "So Fast." Kidman and fellow Constantine Steve Lambke joined Dorion for about half her set, determined to help the lady rock out like it was 1993 all over again. And there was clearly some residual riffage left over from her Eric's Trip days as Dorion enjoyed the chance to get a bit raucous with her indie rock peers and their respective noisy noises.

With an 11 p.m. curfew looming, Doiron wrapped things up quickly and then met with Johnson to commandeer the merchandise table and send her admirers out into the night. It was a fitting end to an intimate gig, wrapping up with a personal touch that's mostly missing in this day and age.