Pete Yorn - February 8, 2007. The Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver

The last time I saw Pete Yorn was 4 years ago when he was touring in support of "Day I Forgot". According to him, the last time he was actually through Vancouver was as the opening act for the Foo Fighters, which is a double bill I just don't get.

Yorn did tell an interesting anecdote about that trip. As he was leaving a sushi restaurant he was overcome by a crowd of people swarming the streets in celebration. He asked what was going on, and it turned out that the Canucks had won a semi final game. "You've got to admire a city that celebrates the first game, of the first series.

The opening acts were Charlotte Martin, who had the most beautiful stage setup consisting of twisted christmas lights arranged to look like candelabras, and Aqualung.

Aqualung is Matt Hales, a Winston lookalike/soundalike from the UK who also sounds a lot like Travis. He sounds so much like Travis in fact that I had to google him when I got home to see if it was actually the Travis lead singer gone solo. Having these kinds of thoughtful distractions coupled with the fact that he was hidden on the side of the stage playing a grand piano out of my eyeline meant that I pretty much thought his set was pretty much forgettable. I say pretty much because he does have one remarkable song called "Better Then Sunshine" which I know I've heard but can't remember where.

Pete Yorn took the stage to great fanfare. The crowd was surprizingly mixed since the last time I'd seen him the crowd was probably 80% girls. This time was pretty even although his status as a sex symbol has not diminished judging by the amount of lingerie that was tossed his way.

His backing band is actually a band I well and truly love called Minibar. In Yorn's previous west coast tour, Minibar was the opening act as well as backing band, and I would have loved to see that, alas they only played as close as Seattle. Most memorable moments for Minibar would have to be the incredibly energetic drummer, Malcolm Cross, pictured above, and the multitalented bassist Sid Jordan who managed to 1) play bass 2) smoke a joint, all while 3) singing back up vocals! I wish I had gotten a photo of that.

Since I'm not a writer, and have a crappy memory, I'll just mention some thoughts and highlights about the actual show.

He had this gorgeous old decorated acoustic guitar that had it's strap held on with duct tape. I love to see things like that.

He told of how he'd awoken to hear that Anna Nicole Smith had been hospitalized and after he had finished showering heard that she'd died. He dedicated "Bandstand In The Sky" to her. A sample lyric is ...

You can take my life but I'll never die.
You can tell that's the way I'll survive.
Heading for the bandstand in the sky.

He also told about the soft spot he had in his heart for "Life On A Chain" because it was the song that got him his record contract. "Sing along if you know it" and sing along the crowd did. Sang along to pretty much everything in fact.

Particularly lovely was an almost acoustic version of "Come Back Home" played at 2/3 speed giving it a nice intimacy and a totally acoustic cover of the Grateful Dead song "Friend of the Devil".

The other cover he played was "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" by The Smiths. Pete had just seen Morrissey in L.A. and I guess he was a big influence on him.

I'm sure I forgot a lot but I can say it was a great show. Love him, not JUST because he's cute.