by Peter Hendra
The first time the frontmen from four iconic 1990s Canadian bands -- Moe Berg (The Pursuit of Happiness), Chris Murphy (Sloan), Craig Northey (The Odds) and Steven Page (The Barenaked Ladies) -- got together to play a show, the idea was to do so in a songwriters circle, in which each performer would take a turn telling a back story about a song and then playing it. It didn't last long for that to change.
"We did [a show] last summer, and it was kind of formatted that way, but we basically cheated the whole thing by doing four songs that way, and then doing the rest as a band," Berg recalled over the phone.
The quartet have taken that "superband" idea a step further, and are now known as the TransCanada Highwaymen, a nod to the many hours, days, months each has travelled across the country while touring. The newly formed group, which performs at the Grand Theatre tonight, plays four of the best-known songs penned by each of its members while telling a few stories, too.
"We wanted to do something a bit different," Berg said, who penned hits such as "I'm an Adult Now" and "Cigarette Dangles."
"We wanted to present ourselves as a band. I think we wanted it to be like a real concert experience for the audience instead of just a songwriters-in-the-round. It brings a little more energy and excitement into the show, I think."
This show is different in other ways, too, Berg said, thanks to the involvement of theatrical producer Jim Millan, who previously designed tours for the Kids in the Hall and some reality show stars.
"He approached us about doing a more theatrical production where we share road stories and there's a multimedia aspect to it and also the music," Berg explained. "So it's a bit more than a concert."
Playing concerts, as it turns out, is something from which Berg excused himself for a long time.
"I created a lot of anxiety around it," he said. "I didn't really know how to get around it except for just avoiding doing it."
He warmed up to the idea of performing again, though, after The Pursuit of Happiness played a show about 18 months ago.
"I had a pretty good time that night and I was thinking, 'If I just fought through this, I could get back to enjoying it again.' It's something I can do, it's a skill I have, and then so I just decided when people asked me if I could come do this, could you come and sing a song for this, I decided to say yes more often than I said no, and I [used to] say no all of the time," said Berg, who moved to the other side of the console as a record producer when he stopped performing.
"And I started to get back into the idea of doing it and not being so anxious about it, and then this came up, and I thought, 'OK, this is going to be a real test. I'm going to go out and do this.'"
That he isn't the frontman but rather one of four made performing again more appealing, Berg said.
In hindsight, Berg feels as though he didn't appreciate what he had back in TPOH's heyday.
"I did really enjoy performing. I loved it a lot. It was my favourite thing to do," he reminisced. "In some ways, it's not so much I miss it, I wish I'd taken more time to smell the roses while I was doing it. I shouldn't have let the pressures of whatever was going on get to me. It's such an awesome experience to get to do that, and I know how many people would love the opportunity to do the things that I was able to do. I wish I had appreciated it more than I did."
Berg misses being part of a band, he said, and he especially misses his bandmates.
"There's a camaraderie, a single goal, and a lot of these cliches that are really quite wonderful, actually," he reflected. "I've even been experiencing it rehearsing with these guys. It's great being around these guys and talking about music and about stories about being on the road. They're hilarious, all three of those guys, so they're always cracking jokes. That camaraderie, that's really intoxicating, a really fun thing."
The quartet has eight shows in Ontario lined up, at least for now.
"We're just trying to get this going," Berg said. "There's been talk about maybe doing some songwriting and stuff like that, but I think we're trying to get through these first eight shows, and then talk about doing some more, and see where this goes. It all has to be scheduled around everyone's 'day job,' I guess, if you want to call it that."
--taken from: Kingston Whig-Standard
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