Wil w/ CR Avery
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Upstairs Cabaret
A slam poet, a beat-boxer, a harmonica player, and a keyboardist walk up to a microphone—and they’re all the same guy. It’s CR Avery, a one-man band who’s toured with artists such as Ani DiFranco, Tom Waits, and Sage Francis. His musical talent is as diverse as his influences and his performance. And this time, he was there to open for Wil.
The audience at Upstairs Cabaret on Thursday night didn’t know what to expect from Avery, but now they know: a man who can brilliantly play harmonica while beatboxing and playing a keytar at the same time.
If Avery was complicated hip-hop style beatbox blues, then Wil was simplistic, passionate, roots, rock, and roll.
Starting his set strong, Wil played crowd favourites like “Wedding Dress,” “Both Hands,” and “New Deal.”
In between songs Wil charmed the audience with his wit, at one point telling them he was going to play “Tell You Twice” before repeating himself verbatim a moment later. Later on, Wil took a moment to thank everyone in the audience who was seeing him or Avery for the first time.
“Everything you do you did for the first time at some point,” he said.
Something else new for the show was the addition of a drummer, Jason Cook. A childhood friend of Wil’s, Cook actually also co-produced and played drums on Wil’s latest album, Heart of Mine.
Wil claimed the two had only played four shows together before, which was hard to believe: they sounded like they’d been playing together their whole lives.
When Wil offered to take requests from the audience he was surprised by how many people shouted their favourite songs back at him. Afterwards he humbly remarked that he had expected maybe one or two people to know his tunes.
The set finished with Wil’s epic closer, “Honey Pie.” When he came back to the stage for the encore, he briefly considered taking a request before telling the audience a short story about previously playing at Upstairs earlier on in his career. Wil then announced that he was going to “blow his musical load.”
“Four String” will always bring the house down. It’s Wil’s passion expressed in its truest form. It’s a musical climax that demands to be experienced live, and the ideal epilogue to a night of roots, rock, and roll.