Pink Mountaintops One-Off Solo Gig

From the outset, this didn't seem to make a lot of sense. Stephen McBean's other band, Black Mountain, played no less than three shows in a week here at the end of September, and you'd think the man might be tired of touring. Then a friend in the know cleared it up — McBean was in town for a wedding and wanted to play. Ah. Well then, carry on (and thanks for ruining my whole intro).

The impromptu gambit paid off financially, at least. The show sold out shortly before McBean hit the stage to dust off his less famous moniker. Pink Mountaintops' first performance in Toronto since the middle of 2006 was a much different affair than the full stage hootenanny that night at the Horseshoe.

McBean played half the set solo with his iPod as back-up, while the other half featured Quest For Fire's Chad Ross and Mike Maxymuik on guitar and minimalist drums, respectively. In other words, it was a lot closer to how the Pink Mountaintops sound on record than they do when McBean brings out Amber Webber and the rest of his second band.

That brought the same kind of arty charm that the albums feature, but not as much of the inclusiveness that the full band bring. An example came before new song "Vampire," where McBean kicked a small collection of tambourines and shakers on to the Drake floor and nobody picked them up. After that failure, he tried a little harder, though not much.

"I spent $50 on those, so, you know, whatever," McBean mumbled.

Thankfully, the audience complied with whatever cue that was and shook the rhythm instruments through a rousing take on "Sweet '69."

There were miscues, like when McBean did a decent but inferior run through "Tourist In Your Town" without Webber — "I should have never done that without Amber," he said afterward — and there was a disappointing lack of new material in what would have been a good opportunity to showcase more than just three or so songs.

But on the whole, this was a good chance to see one of the country's most enigmatic songwriters on one of the city's smallest stages. If that wasn't worth your $10 on its own, I don't know what would be.