I hope that the Crash Test Dummies don't forget their manners on Canada Day.

I wrote the following after seeing them at Membertou a few years ago. 

Once There Was This Girl Who ... Threatened Table 6.

Brad Roberts and I were born in the same year--1964. His fetching long hair and quirky baritone voice made him famous, for a while, as lead singer for The Crash Test Dummies. Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm. Remember?

Ellen Reid sang back-up vocals, sounding achy and uncomplicated. She moved to lead vocals for a cover of The Ballad of Peter Pumpkin Head - ending up at number 4 on the Canadian Singles Chart in 1995.

Brad and Ellen came to town on April Fool's Day several years ago. Brad took a photo or two and updated his blog just before the show: "This is a brand-new venue and we are delighted to be here at the Membertou Trading Convention Centre."

Hundreds of Cape Bretoners sat around large round tables, lit by flickering candles, ready for some alternative folk/rock music. (Maybe they would sing "Superman's Song"? That was a big hit, right?)  

I'll come back to this.

A young Haligonian named with his set written on the palm of his right-hand started things off. "I hope you like me", he said, as he began his first song. And we did like him, as he sat on a stool, offering one song and then another immediately. His voice was pleasing and his songs easy to listen to, though the venue felt wrong for him - like it wasn't intimate enough. I'd like to hear more from him.

But we were there to see Brad and Ellen and, as it turned out, guitar player Stuart Cameron - John Allen's son. The moment had come. Brad walked out on stage. We said later that he walked like a monkey, purposely sticking out his slightly round belly, arms at his side. Brad's blog puts it this way, "He may look like an average guy, now in his mid- 40s..."

I am all for substance over surface. We age. We look different. This should not be a surprising thing. And it is not. This middle-aged version of Brad Roberts starts singing "After seven days, he was quite tired, and so God said..." and I am really into it, transported back to earlier days in my Ottawa apartment listening to this song on tape.

But let's get back to Superman's Song. A really drunk guy is sitting at the table next to ours. He yells out "Superman". This is meant to be taken as a request. It is kind of funny. But Brad is unamused. He mocks the guy-- slurring out the word with great exaggeration. Something like "SUPE..BA...MAN,,,, SUPE..BA...MAN". It made me feel uncomfortable. It seemed mean. Later, he made fun of the guy again, yelling, in that same dumb voice, that he had drank twelve beers before he had even arrived:It  created tension. There was no charm, no humour, in this.

But let it be said that Ellen was not to be outdone. Nope. Before singing an encore, she singled out "table 6" saying that she would f(;@&$€ing kill them if they talked during her song. She actually seemed a little crazed. Brad came back on and tried to smooth things over by asking "that guy" to shout out superman because he was gonna sing the song. It was too late. The mood was strange, broken somehow. It was actually a relief that the concert was over. And that is, I think, a shame. Or was it a very subtle joke?