After not having ventured out to a live show in months, I finally got my butt out to Wakefield’s Black Sheep Inn recently to see Maritime sweetheart Jenn Grant… boy, am I glad I did. I’ve seen her play a couple of times — the first being at a house concert in 2008; I always got a kick out of the her quirky, coy humour, and how it played against her heartwrenching tunes.

Here to promote her Honeymoon Punch album, her endearing stream-of-consciousness rambling between songs is still hilarious, but the music is a complete shift to sheer giddiness. Back when I got my first glimpse of her Getcha Good video, I could hardly believe my eyes or ears, and I wondered how she’d perform it live… well, she (and her all-male band) did just great:

(The sound quality of all the vids I took that night is sub-par — maybe due to where we were sitting in relation to the speakers…? So this is the only clip I posted from the night.)

The opener was Hooded Fang, whom Jenn had handpicked from having heard them on cbc3; they kicked things off with buoyant tunes that brought me back to the 80s. I have a feeling I’ll be hearing about them again.

Jenn’s set kicked things off in another way — there was a veritable dance party in my belly… this baby seems to be a fan of Ms. Grant! Like I said, she pulled off all the new, upbeat songs as though she’s been doing so for years. She also dipped back into her older material, and the transitions were seamless.

During one of these more sombre songs, my ear caught a perfect and delicate harmony that made me wonder “Whoa, is that a mic effect??” Only when it happened a second time did I scan the stage and realize that it was her bass player; as someone who’s not usually a fan of falsetto, I was blown away at how terrific he sounded.

Overall, a really nice night out. I was looking for a worthwhile and inspiring break from my too-long hiatus from seeing some live music…? Wish Granted. (Thanks for bringing me, Manders ;)

music Black Sheep Inn, Getcha Good, Honeymoon Punch, Hooded Fang, Jenn Grant