When you think of an art gallery, you probably don't think about kickdrums, electric guitars and sweaty shirtless men singing about having deep fryers in his bedroom. Leave it to Shotgun Jimmie and B.A. Johnston to shatter stereotypes. Rolling through town on their "Taking Care of Business Tour", these hometown heroes made use of an unusual venue and delivered the goods to a delighted crowd.
The last time Jimmie performed in Sackville was at SappyFest, backed by album collaborators Attack in Black. On this tour, Jimmie is performing solo, electric guitar in hand and kick drums at his feet. It was a relaxed, intimate performance - it was easy to tell that he was happy to be back home. He told stories about touring across Canada, played a capella versions of some songs and invited the crowd to sing along with others. The laid-back stage show meshed perfectly with Jimmie’s songs. Using ramshackle, lo-fi instrumentation and stream-of-consciousness lyrics – musings about slow motion, drinking champagne in a garden and Joey Jeremiah – they suddenly tumble into odd and profound little moments. “Love is impossible," goes one song from his new EP, "but it’s also a popsicle.” Like his performance, it's a statement that's simple, catchy and true.
B.A. Johnston’s show was, first and foremost, a spectacle. Running onstage wearing a “hobo suit” and waving lit sparklers, BA took the pyrotechnics, sweat and bluster of an arena rock show, cut it down to size and deep-fried it, yielding a tasty, uniquely Canadian treat. Though he spends some time on keyboards and acoustic guitar, BA typically cues up tracks on his “iPhone” (a beat up discman) and sings along. Well, he doesn’t just sing along; he’ll stand on chairs, slide through the audience (occasionally running into someone’s feet), head outside, and collapse against pillars. And that was before the hobo suit came off to treat the audience to “the gun show.” But the most underrated element of the B.A. Johnston show might be his actual songs. In this post-James Brown era, it’s time we bestowed the honor of “The Hardest Working Man in Showbusiness” on B.A. Johnston. Often based off of campy and fun electronics or quickly strummed acoustic guitar, B.A. uses symbols of quote-unquote low culture - Robocop, blinking Nintendos, Humpty Dumpty potato chips - and wrings genuinely funny and awkwardly sincere stories out of them. A poet laureate for Canada's dirtmalls, B.A. Johnston is not to be missed.