Joe Pernice w/Kate Boothman @ Dakota Tavern

I've been a fan of Joe Pernice for quite a little while now, but I'd be the first to admit that my knowledge of him is not as extensive as it could be. For example, I only found out recently that, not only has he been living here in Toronto for several years now, but he's actually been living only a few blocks away from me. A 'few blocks away from me' is also the location of The Dakota Tavern, which apparently is part of the reason why he chose that particular venue for his return to the local music stage after a four year hiatus from doing so. His return was certainly welcome, not only to me, but also to everyone who attended the sold out venue to see him perform in support of his first novel, as well as the accompanying 'soundtrack' album that he's recently released on his own Ashmont Records label.

I arrived partway through the opening set by local musician Kate Boothman, who has spent some time touring with Pernice south of the border. She has just released an album with her band Sunbear entitled Sun Streaming In, which was recorded by Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor (who I noticed was in attendance.) I found out when I got there, that the full band would be playing later in the night, but for now, Boothman was there to perform a mellow set of solo acoustic numbers. I thought her brand of folky introspective material was pretty good, although not particularly earth shattering. There were a couple of times where I heard hints of the Cowboy Junkies, which is certainly a good thing, but overall the set lacked anything that I personally found all that memorable.

Joe Pernice's set was rumoured to be not only a concert, but also a book reading from his new book It Feels So Good When I Stop, which I finally had a chance to read this weekend. It's not bad. If you've read the reviews than you know that Nick Horby's High Fidelity is mentioned in pretty much every one of them which means that if you liked that book, then you're likely to find something appealing about this one too, although it must be noted that Pernice's debut definitely stands on its own. Feels So Good's nameless narrator is certainly more messed up than High Fidelity's Rob Gordon, with Pernice's style being a tad more sardonic. I'm a bit of a prude that blushes easily, so some of the content is not really my cup of tea, but overall I thought that there were enough humourous moments to keep me interested.

His witty nature was prominent throughout his set as he mentioned his Canadian status right at the outset, enabling him to make coments about the night being all CanCon and even alluding to the benefits of OHIP. After reading a portion of the book, garnering a significant amount of laughs in the process, he performed his cover of Dream Syndicate's Tell Me When It's Over, which is probably my favourite song on the album. He played several more covers from the new album and then, after playing a cover of Sebadoh's Soul and Fire, closed off that portion of the show with a fictional anecdote about Lou Barlow, also from the book. Although he was apologetic for making us stand there while he reads, I found myself equally as riveted with his reading as I was with his performance overall. The second half of his set was filled with many of his classics, including a set of material from his Scud Mountain Boys days. People were shouting out all sorts of requests and, impressively he regularly deviated from the setlist in order to accomodate, although he made no secret about the requests that he wasn't going to do. (Crowd member: 7:30!!! - His response: Yah, right! (in other words: no.)) By the time he finished, we had been treated to almost two hours of material, many of which were obscurities from his career which made for a very special night. At the end he promised to perform more often around here and I, for one, am holding him to that.

Photos: My shots of Joe Pernice / Kate Boothman @ Dakota Tavern are on flickr.
Myspace: Sunbear
Myspace: Pernice Brothers