With the momentum of four consecutive number one albums as City and Colour, prolific singer/songwriter Dallas Green stopped at the Royal Theatre for the first of two back to back shows Monday night. This is Green’s first solo tour since November of 2019, but he clearly hasn’t missed a beat.
Most Camosun students may be too young to remember City and Colour as a side project, but when it began Green already had a vast body of work to his credit. He’s mainly known for his time with the award winning post-hardcore group Alexisonfire and his collaboration with Pink as You+Me, but after seeing him stand alone on a theatre stage it’s very clear that Dallas Green is City and Colour.
The Royal is the perfect venue for a City and Colour concert. Known equally for his immaculate singing voice and his melancholy undertones, Green brought a performance engineered for a big stage in an intimate setting.
The grandeur of the concert hall is impossible to miss as you take your seat but some brilliant work by the stage techs completely transformed the venue, adapting to fit each song with a perfectly executed light show.
The setlist was well crafted and represented his discography well. Green opened by showcasing his skills on the Gretsch, most notably as he perfectly articulated his angst and pessimism with the “The Grand Optimist,” which was followed by some of his best known acoustic standards. The crowd was on their feet and singing along by the time Green closed with “Sleeping Sickness.”
Green lived up to his reputation and put on an amazing show from start to finish. There are very few performers who can walk onto a stage and own an audience from the first chord, and Dallas Green does it as well as anyone currently touring.
It’s a strange feeling to be in a packed house, surrounded by masked strangers united by a love of song. Without going into our collective struggles experienced through the pandemic, it’s difficult to describe just how good it felt to share a room while a musician of Green’s calibre took the mic.
City and Colour performs again at the Royal Theatre tonight.