Danny Michel - Concert Review

Danny Michel has been described as “Tom Waits meets Cheap Trick” and the packed house at the West End Cultural Club on an unusually warm Sept. night certainly got to experience some well-crafted tales and stunning guitar work.

Showcasing his sixth release, Valhalla, Danny wandered on the stage to an eruption of cheers. This was an audience familiar with his wry songs and witty stage presence and you could tell they where ready to be entertained.

He is a physical performer using his slim frame as punctuation and counterpoint to the lyrics. He mocks himself, he cheerleads, he dances with his guitar and puts himself out on a limb risking it all to endear himself to his fans. Danny Michel’s songs range from country-laced tales of a jailed man with 13 days left in the joint and bragging alcoholics to quirky pop songs about feeling invisible and hard-learned tales of life on the road.

Danny is a master of the loop box able to produce dense layers of sound building from thumping bass/drum lines, shimmering chords, and sing along vocal lines over which he plays jaw-dropping leads, working his pick-up selector switch coaxing screams and moans out of his clunky hummy guitar.

Danny’s set list included many songs from his new CD including Into the Flame, I Will Love You for Miles, It’s Not the End of the World, Midnight Train, and White Lightning. Fans of his work have noted that he continues to mature as a writer but really it’s his live performances that separate him from the legion of guys with guitars.

He joked about all his songs sounding the same, but truly nothing he does ever sounds the same and that is one of his most endearing traits. Rhythmically, he can do more by himself (hammering on the guitar back, chirping the strings behind the bridge and turning off the guitar and strumming it into an open mic) than many artists can do with a full band. He has gained confidence in his guitar playing having spent the summer as a hired gun lead player in Sarah Harmer’s hot band.

Danny has an encyclopedic knowledge of music and uses it to add melody lines from the cartoon Spiderman TV show to a rare Hawaii Elvis tune about doomed little ocean shrimp.

Danny has been working his voice, stretching it and bending it to his will using his perfect mic technique to add background vocals, shout-outs, and accents to each tune. I have seen Danny almost a dozen times and every time he has played a song called Toledo. Yet each time he has twisted the song a bit, placing the emphasis on different words or phrases to bring out the loneliness, the misery, or the humour of being on the road and wishing you where home. Tonight was no exception.

Many familiar songs from previous albums made it into the set too drawing immediate applause and whistles. The night was over all too soon sending the crowd into a deserved standing ovation. The last song of the night was an emotional and stirring cover of Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World.

Opening the evening, loveable loony Montréaler, Lullaby Baxter used her sparkling voice to sing goofy feminist songs about spells of bad behavior, little clams, and her cardboard heart. Jazzy and childlike she looked nervous and unsure. Winnipeggers were polite but uncommitted.