Review of Dan Mangan & Jason Collett at Scala, London for Artrocker magazine

The audience is in a surprisingly jovial mood. ‘Surprising’ not in the sense that the ability of the performers tonight are a perfect excuse to bring on the Winter blues a few weeks premature, ‘surprising’ in the sense that, more often than we’d like to admit, gigs can be slightly stressful affairs. Why is it that the token abnormally tall man always has particularly frizzy hair and chooses to stand in a place which blocks my view? Why is it because we’re near the front of the stage we choose to unnecessarily bunch ourselves up like sardines? Is that guy in the mosh pit trying to hurt me or does he always make such good use of his elbows? Whilst it’s unlikely even the beginnings of a mosh pit are to form tonight (support act Jason Collett is an alt-country kind of guy), you get the point. It’s the crowds wooping reaction to Mr. Collett revealing his originating from Toronto that reveals why exactly the good vibes are so plentiful this evening. Chances are a good percentage of the room have guzzled down an amount of maple syrup a dietician would recommend in a lifetime just today – yep, I’m surrounded by Canadians.

Despite my being conscious that the Britishness inside me is doing its utmost best to combat against such communion amongst strangers, it has to be said that Jason Collett, unfortunately, is a little dull. This is not to say he wasn’t good; his guitar plucking was more than adequate, his vocals particularly well suited to the style of music. His membership of Canadian indie-rock supergroup Broken Social Scene only confirms this. It was the style of music that was the problem. Whilst Collett’s sweet tunes are perfect to have on whilst chilling in your bedroom or in the background of a dinner party, they are not the most engaging in a live setting. What’s especially frustrating is that, with a particularly strong set of chords here and a patch of vocals that excitedly rises beyond a whisper there, every now and then he threatens to break out of the plod-along pace he’s evidently grown used to but never quite makes it.

You can imagine the shock, then, when Dan Mangan and his backing band burst onto the stage with a fierce pound of drums to signal the start of new song We Want To Be Pleasantly Surprised, Not Expectedly Let Down.

It’s possible that the content solidarity of Collett is having an influence, but Mangan & Co. seem remarkably layered. So often bands with multiple members believe strength comes in numbers and, as a result, each musician desperately tries to cram their personality into an already overcrowded song, but Dan Mangan is not one of those bands. Time and time again the four remaining members (Mangan included), musically and even sometimes literally, take a step back to allow one of their comrades to have their moment (particular beneficiaries of this attitude are a violin solo stretching to five minutes and a closing of Robots with Mangan standing on some speakers to be best placed to conduct the adoring audience below in unison). 

This ‘there’s no ‘i’ in ‘team’’ philosophy displayed by the indie-rockers really typifies the atmosphere and evening in general. It’s fitting, then, that the set is brought to a close with Mangan amongst the audience, singing So Much For Everyonejust like the rest of us.