Edgefest

 

The Weakerthans have long been known for their lyrical ingenuity, but they are, after all, a rock band, and Reunion Tour is a musical triumph. Like Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" or Tom Waits's "Bone Machine," the album is a collection of finely rendered portraits of fictional characters, none of whom you probably know but all of whom you'll recognize.

 

There's the dot-com millionaire on his way down in "Relative Surplus Value," the Winnipeg bus driver of "Civil Twilight" whose assigned route takes him every two hours past a house that is haunted only for him. And there are real-life characters, too: "Bigfoot!" tells the story of a ferry operator in northern Manitoba who saw the legendary creature and was then taken advantage of and mocked by everyone from cable news networks to the citizens of his own small town. In "Hymn of the Medical Oddity," we meet Winnipegger David Reimer, who was born a boy but raised as a girl after a famous and tragic medical experiment. Reunion Tour is not itself a reunion—The Weakerthans have never gone away—but it is a giant step forward for the band. There's a new confidence and comfort here, four musicians more sure than ever of who they are and what they want to say.

 

 

http://www.theweakerthans.org

http://www.myspace.com/theweakerthans