City and Colour: Be Safe In The Sound

City and Colour w/ Hurray For the Riff Raff
Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA
11.13.15

It was pouring rain outside, with an air of disbelief in the wake of the day’s news from Paris, but Seattle’s historic Paramount Theatre felt like exactly where we should all be, supporting the musicians we love, taking solace from both the weather and the world, ensconced in the theatre and each other. Opening the show was New Orleans band Hurray For The Riff Raff, fronted by the eloquent Alynda Lee Segarra, her compelling alto ringing through the hallowed room. They opened their set with “Levon’s Dream,” a slow, sparse memorial from their 2014 album Small Town Heroes and immediately had the crowd’s rapt attention.

HFTRR has a meandering Americana sound, drawing on Southern folk, blues, jazz and soul, melding them while also pointing them in fresh direction. By the third track, Segarra turns it up with an “All right Seattle, we’re gonna try to get you moving a little bit,” and the rollicking “Lake of Fire” before the anti-war song “The Body Electric” puts a blatantly political spin on the night. Closing out their set, Segarra puts down her guitar for “St. Roch Blues,” a song for peace, dedicated to Paris and inspired by violence in the New Orleans neighborhood it is named for. Its slow, mournful tune and doo-wop tribute triggers both love and tears and makes you wish for more.

A short break later, the crowd had filled in and the stage went dark before City and Colour took the stage, Dallas Green immediately addressing the day’s terrorist attacks, particularly in regards to the occurrence at famed Parisian music venue The Bataclan, and how shows are supposed to be an escape, the day’s events causing him to think about “whether this all matters” and thanking the audience “so fucking much for coming.” Against a backdrop of glittering stars, backlit by sweeping rays of ultra-saturated color, C&C proceeded with an hour and forty-five-minute set combining tracks from the recently released If I Should Go Before You and longtime favorites.

The band opened with the nine-plus-minute, stunning and spooky new track “Woman,” a powerful wall of sound that touches on psychedelic rock with plenty of shoegaze, followed by the blusier, ‘Northern Blues.” Green’s voice has always been the major draw with his wide range and heartbreaking falsetto, and that doesn’t fail to impress in the live show. But his band has become more important and familial in its presence, feeling integral in their work and interactions. Between Green’s native Toronto and his tenure in Nashville, where he’s created the last couple of albums, he’s gathered some of the industry’s best musicians to play with him and their masterful handling of his epic tracks creates a formidable backdrop for his storytelling. “Killing Time” and “Wasted Love” from the new record stand apart with a groove that swaggers unlike his more vulnerable work.

Older tracks like “Hello, I’m in Delaware” and “Sleeping Sickness” have the audience singing every word, shrieking in excitement, while “We Found Each Other in the Dark” feels like a potent anthem for the evening. During “Lover Come Back,” the bouncy but begging regret track, Green gives the crowd breaks of space to do the singing for him and they don’t hesitate for a moment. People are swaying in couples, playing air instruments solo, and singing at the top of their lungs. C&C’s fan base is dedicated for sure, and I’m pretty sure he could do no wrong for them. “Mizzy C,” goes a little bit gospel-rock, reminiscent of Ryan Adams’s guitar work, and he ends the main set with the mysteriously longing “As Much as I Ever Could,” before coming back out for a four-song encore.

He appears again solo, harmonica in tow, for “Body in a Box,” commenting once more on the day’s contemplations, “We do this every day, we come into a place and play songs and hope people enjoy it. And then something like today happens and it just fucks you right up. I truly am so unbelievably thankful that you guys are interested in these songs.” He struggles humorously for a moment tuning his guitar, “It helps when you plug the guitar in. Like as if it was the first time. Oh so it’s the same as yesterday. Still gotta plug in.” And then everyone again sings along like there was a giant invisible campfire in the room. For “The Girl” he begins solo and then the band comes back out for a stomping, upbeat ending. To end the show, the prescient “Hope For Now” off of 2011’s Little Hell is an extended-play version of the powerfully desperate and endlessly hopeful track that leaves the crowd on the edge of tears.

Catch City and Colour on tour here.

City and Colour Set List
Woman
Northern Blues
Two Coins
If I Should Go Before You
Killing Time
Hello, I’m in Delaware
Wasted Love
Lover Come Back
We Found Each Other in the Dark
Sleeping Sickness
Mizzy C
The Grand Optimist
As Much as I Ever Could
Encore
Body in a Box
Northern Wind
The Girl
Hope For Now