I have a love/hate relationship with Ottawa’s Bronson Centre; they get such terrific music acts coming through and the seats are cushy… but I don’t think I’ve ever heard mushier acoustics. Counter that with my unabashed appreciation of Dan Mangan — you might have noticed it in some of my past posts about him.

So this past Friday, I ambled over to the Centre to catch Dan’s show in a pretty excited state — it is, after all, a lot rarer for me to be going out to see a concert with girlfriends, since having a 5-month-old has somewhat changed my social calendar lately.

To be honest, the sound did get in the way of my enjoying things as much as I would have in another room; but the show was still terrific, and the evening was made worthwhile by the encore set alone — from which both the videos below I took…

Dan’s cover of Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”:

And crowd favourite “Robots” — featuring two kids in the crowd who dressed up for the occasion:

It’s been so great to see Dan’s popularity grow over the past couple of years, from bigger shows to cover features, and even a Polaris nomination. This is one particularly hardworking and down-to-earth, not to mention talented, fella. Check out his new album, and best to do it somewhere with good sound.

More about that 5-month-old soon :)

music