Big Wreck made a stop in Ottawa for the second-last show of their 2023 North American tour to the Bronson Centre Music Theatre on Thursday night.
Starting the evening off was Daniel Greaves, formerly of The Watchmen, who were Canadian rock radio contemporaries with Big Wreck in the late ’90s. Alone at the piano, Greaves played a stunning set, which included Watchmen songs as well as well-placed covers by Nick Drake, Billy Bragg, and James Taylor. Greaves joked, “Here’s some songs I wrote, and some songs I didn’t write, and it’s your job to figure out which is which.”
Up next was Texas King, who instantly made an indelible impression on me when I saw them open for Big Wreck in this very venue in 2019. Known for their stage presence and solid songwriting, it was a real treat to see them in a bigger venue again. Singer Jordan MacDonald was like bottled lightning as he led the band through a whirlwind set of older favourites like “Boomerang” and “Chandelier” as well as material from their newest EP, Capsize. I don’t think any of the guys in Texas King stood still for a second through their set, and their energy and enthusiasm fired up the crowd, getting them ready for the headliner.
With some imposed downtime during COVID, Ian Thornley and the rest of Big Wreck found a way to turn lemons into lemonade, with Thornley hitting a hot streak, writing new material regularly, while also pulling from unfinished ideas that until now had not found their place in a song. Fans of the band will recognize snippets of guitar noodling from Ian’s Instagram posts that have since shown up in some of the newer material. The result has been Thornley and company’s prodigious output over the last three years, in which they’ve experimented with releasing a series of EPs, starting with the three-part 7 series, and continuing with the most recent EP Pages, released on November 24. In a recent podcast, Thornley assured listeners that the rest of the Pages EP series is ready to go, just awaiting mastering. So there’s lots more to come. Thornley has said in interviews that in today’s rapid consumption society, he often felt like some of the deeper tracks on full-length albums weren’t getting the attention they deserved, because people just don’t consume music the same way they used to. Releasing new material in metered doses of five songs helps present the music in a form that allows each song to shine, as Thornley has also said that they put the same amount of work into every song, regardless of whether they are intended to be singles or not.
With so much material to pull from, it’s difficult to appease every fan at a Big Wreck show, but they do their best, keeping the hits in there, along with a mix of material from over the years. Last night, Big Wreck hit the stage to “In Fair Light”, the opening track off Pages. The song, with its drawn-out intro, like the whole EP, is a bit of a exploration of new territory for Big Wreck, tapping into some more progressive influences like Genesis, with a smattering of synths and big rhythm section work by drummer Sekou Lumumba and bassist Dave McMillan. And with Thornley and guitarist Chris Caddell handling guitar duties, the set was basically a masterclass in musical performance from the whole group, with plenty of scorching guitar work, and excellent soaring singalong choruses in songs like “That Song”, “So Far So Good”, and hard-hitting heavier numbers like “Bail Out” and “I Digress”. In particular, the absolutely gorgeous slide guitar intro that led into the band’s number one hit “Albatross” was stunning. “Ghosts” also featured some extended jaw-dropping solo work by Thornley, before taking a brief side trip into a cover of the Doobie Brothers’ “Long Train Running”, with guitarist Chris Caddell capably handling vocals, before the band made their way back into the ending of “Ghosts”. Keeping things interesting, Thornley even managed to work in the theme to TV show Law and Order into the outro of the song, which drew a chuckle from a number of fans who picked up on it.
Thornley took a few moments to thank fans for coming out and letting the band continue to do what they do. He noted, “It’s not the longest tour we’ve ever done, but it feels like it. We’ve gone through like six buses!” which is not far from the truth, as the band has had a number of bus-related mishaps. They closed out the set with fan favourite “Blown Wide Open”, which is always a powerful crowd participation song, before setting down their guitars and walking off stage to the drone of guitar feedback.
After a few minutes of persistent demands for more, the band returned to the stage for the band’s 1997 breakout hit, “The Oaf”. Having seen them numerous times, I know “The Oaf” is always a big closer, but last night it was made even more special when Thornley took an extended middle section on guitar and then settled back against the drum riser, with a quick nod to side stage, and Daniel Greaves walked onto the stage and sang a beautiful rendition of R.E.M.’s “Hairshirt” to thunderous applause before walking back off with a wave, and Big Wreck closed out the rest of “The Oaf”, capping off a wonderful evening of Canadian rock at its finest.
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