Gomez, Luke Doucet Go Together Nicely In Vancouver

It's fitting that Luke Doucet would return to Vancouver as part of the Cultural Olympiad series, seeing as he first made a name for himself as a member of Veal, one of the city's mid-'90s, indie pop buzz bands.

Doucet's almost 10 years removed from that part of his career, and is now a full-fledged singer/songwriter troubadour, complete with backing band, The White Falcon.

A much more sparse crowd was on hand for Doucet's set — a stark difference from the Olympiad shows when the Winter Olympics were in full swing. Fully packed theatres greeted opening acts during those two weeks, and even though the Paralympics have now begun, the city has most definitely come down a bit on the enthusiasm meter.

That isn't to say those on hand weren't excited or pumped up. Plenty of hoots and whoops could be heard as Doucet launched into his first song of the night, the rolling, alt.country-ish "Long Haul Driver."

Doucet and The White Falcon are an extremely tight outfit, as even the most hardened of music snobs would find themselves tapping their foot or bopping along. Canadian solo artist and Doucet's wife, Melissa McClelland, is a member of the band, and her backing and harmonizing vocals are the perfect compliment to her husband.

Doucet himself comes across as Canada's answer to Ryan Adams (minus the crazy), hitting upon country, blues, jazz, rock and pop all at once, all sung with a raspy twang. He's also a fairly good amalgam of some of his country's finest artists and bands with any kind of country leaning. Throughout his set, you could pick out the Neil Young, Blue Rodeo, The Tragically Hip and even Colin James influences.

Homages were also paid to The Band (Doucet talked about how influential they were to his parents and eventually him as well), and Gordon Lightfoot — the latter being a highlight of the set.

Doucet spent a few minutes talking to the audience about how he had thought it would be appropriate to cover a Canadian hero, seeing as this show was part of the Cultural Olympiad, a series of shows designed to turn the spotlight on (mostly) Canada's diverse music talent.

He said he'd wanted to sing a Neil Young song, but thought this was much too hallowed ground to be treading upon, so Doucet settled on covering Lightfoot's iconic, "Sundown" — but played the way Neil Young would play it.

Playing "Sundown" as a sped-up, honky tonk country romp, complete with a drawn-out, Young-ish guitar solo, turned out to be as much fun for the crowd as it was for the band to play.

You can be forgiven if you thought England's Gomez were either no longer making music or were a long-forgotten footnote to their country's Brit-pop mid-'90s heyday. But seeing the Orpheum instantly fill up to capacity prior to their set was enough to make one realize Gomez are not only still alive, but also still very relevant to many people.

As the band opened their set with "Tijuana Lady," diehards instantly rose to their feet and began motioning for the rest of the theatre to rise from their comfy seats and stand for Gomez. Before long, the entire crowd was on its feet and many people could be heard either singing along or shouting in approval at the band.

Gomez followed with a one-two punch of "Hamoa Beach" and "If I Ask You Nicely," (whose "Hey la la la" chorus really got the crowd amped up with participation).

The band's first three songs each featured their three primary singers, which added more to the enjoyment of the set. Vocalists taking different turns really does create a more fun, loose, party atmosphere, as if you're at a basement party with friends and everyone is stepping up to the mic to sing. The crowd undeniably fed off this vibe, and the further the band got into the set the more rowdy and vocal the audience got.

Hearing people singing along so loudly and also shouting and hollering with each nuance the band displayed, most definitely reinforced the adage that hard work and perseverance can pay off.

Gomez were always unfairly lumped in with the dying days of Brit-pop, especially when you consider their folksy rock seemed out of place with the likes of Blur or Oasis. But to their credit, Gomez have have clearly found and maintained a loyal following over six albums by staying true to their sound and writing catchy songs with heavy emphasis on lyrics.

A friend who used to work at a record store told me whenever people would come in looking for a Dave Matthews CD, he would put a Gomez album in their hand and tell them they seriously needed to buy that instead.

I can only imagine anyone that took him up on the challenge was not disappointed, just as the full-capacity Orpheum Theatre crowd on this night weren't disappointed. They came to see their favourite band and start a party. And for all intents and purposes, mission accomplished.