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WINNIPEG - We'll say this about City and Colour, the solo side project of Alexisonfire screamer Dallas Green.
The guy can tune a mean guitar.
Unfortunately, that catgut-tightening can get a mite tiresome, especially when it comes between each and every song in Green's earnest, emo-heavy setlist.
The 25-year-old St. Catherine's, Ont., native has been playing one-man shows in support of his recently-released album Sometimes, a 10-track collection of self-described "soft songs" that showcase his powerful voice and his penchant for moody introspection. And while the songs aren't exactly lively, they're all accomplished enough as compositions, with some of them (hit single Save Your Scissors and the sweeping Sam Malone) reaching impressive emotional heights.
Green himself cut a fairly forlorn figure during Tuesday night's sold-out show at The Venue, especially after ditching his record-store-clerk sweater and glasses for a T-shirt that showed off his heavily tattooed arms.
But he established a warm rapport with the members of his audience, which is fortunate, given it's all they had to hold their attention during the aforementioned marathon guitar-tuning sessions.
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We're not for a minute buying Green's claim that he only brought one set of guitar strings with him but we appreciate the ease with which he engaged in some winning back-and-forth banter -- deflecting the amorous advances of a pre-teen girl in the front row at one point, deftly handling an inane request for a Closet Monsters cover at another.
Of course, it helps that Green's singer-songwriter chops are also pretty polished.
On Hello, I'm In Delaware, Casey's Song and a cover of How Come Your Arms Aren't Around Me, especially, Green wove something of a spell over the crowd -- like a larger-scale version of the kid who holds everyone enraptured while strumming self-penned ditties at the end of a basement party.
The same, unfortunately, can't be said of opening act Machete Avenue, a two-member guitar-and-piano combo given to bouts of cliched self-absorption.
The duo's ultra-combative stance pretty much alienated them right out of the gate, leaving the singer struggling to have his faux Tom Waits growl heard above the din of a clearly uninterested crowd.