Jason Collett – Il Motore – 10.23.10
Clad in a bowler hat and cuffed-up jeans, Romano certainly looked the part of a traveling folksy-country musician who just wandered into our city (in a charming way), and his songs tell that story as well as his aesthetic. He seemed quiet and humble at first, but then surprised his audience with his good sense of humor. At one point he stopped playing to thank Jason Collett for having him on the tour, remarking that he is a “beautiful songwriter… And a beautiful man.” He then began plucking the intro to his next song, stopping to note, “I just do that ‘cause it makes me seem like I’m super good at guitar.”
As more people very gradually filtered in while he played on, one song really caught everyone’s attention: it sounded like the kind of cynical love song a bunch of cowboys would play sitting around a campfire, telling the story of a dubious couple, full of plays-on-words that turn typical romantic imagery into ironic witticisms. After he finished his set, I told him I had to know what that song was called. “It’s called ‘Helen’s Kitchen’,” he said, “and it’s not on anything yet.” Awesome, an exclusive track!
After a brief interlude during which more people slowly filled in the room, Jason Collett took the stage with no warning and no greeting, starting right into “Rave On Sad Songs”, the lead track from his latest LP, Rat a Tat Tat. His quiet entrance was not telling of the rest of his performance: Collett seemed to be in a good mood for story telling. “It’s so nice to be here,” he said, “so nice that it’s already winter… Fuckin’ A!” He told the audience how he had began the trek to Montreal right after the previous night’s show and how, after crossing the border into Quebec, he saw the first traces of snow. Speaking of the harshness of nature, he then began playing “Lake Superior.”
With nearly every song, Collett had another story. At one point, he said, “This is a song about Henry Miller,” before starting into “Henry’s Song”. He then proceeded to tell a story of an older woman who he met in St. John’s, Newfoundland during his pre-show sound check. She was there drinking in the early afternoon and, when he had just finished playing “Henry’s Song”, he went over to the bar where she was sitting. The woman said she was a poet of sorts, and asked him where he got the last line of the song he had just played. Collett said that he got the line from Allen Ginsberg. The woman replied, very dryly, that she hated Allen Ginsberg. He went on to tell the audience how Newfoundland, not to mention Quebec, are both like different countries to him, one of the biggest differences between them and the rest of Canada being that people in both provinces never seem afraid to tell a person to fuck off. The audience got a big kick out of this, and their excitement continued as Collett spoke at length throughout the show of his love for Montreal.
In yet another strong point of the show, Collett presented us with a new song he had just recently written about FOX News fear-mongerer Glenn Beck called “Cassandra,” in which he sings, “the world needs love and you’re in the way.” After such a strong political line, he didn’t let the mood fall as he told another story about how he ran into Celine Dion in a pharmacy and was hypnotized by her “impossibly long legs.”
The audience showed a lot of love for Collett, and he showed them plenty of love in return. His storytelling added something special to each song, not only adding humor but explaining each song’s personal significance to him. Though the venue was surprisingly uncrowded, it was an overall fun but chill show with a chill audience, save for that token guy who dances and jumps around like he’s at a rock concert no matter what the atmosphere. – Natasha Young
Jason Collett
Daniel Romano
Photography by Amelia Robitaille
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Tom Hall
