Sender: Randy Newman Discussion List <RNEWMAN@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
From: Stuart Ross <stu_ross@TVO.ORG>
Subject: LC takes Toronto by storm!
To: RNEWMAN@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU

I went out to a small club last night to see Dan Bryk, a fellow Torontonian, perform. I have his CD, Dan Bryk: Asshole, which I like quite a bit, but this live solo performance was an amazing, intense experience. It was just Dan and his keyboards and a heap of cheat sheets.

Most of Dan's songs were about love gone wrong (which especially hit home for me, since my ex is a server in the club!), but with these amazing, cynical lyric twists and beautiful musical twists. Lots of revenge, and self-deprecation, and courageous heart-pouring. Accompanied by Dan's lush, instinctive playing. It was sort of like sitting through a concert made up solely of variations on "Real Emotional Girl" and "Four Eyes." That intense. But there were certainly moments of great hilarity, too. The kind of stuff where you laugh, half because it's funny, half because you're uncomfortable.

Nice also to note a little bit of the spirit of Randy Newman, and the occasional Newmanesque flourish on the keyboards. One particularly harrowing song, "Fingers," about an unwanted sexual advance, contained lines that roughly went, "And we listened to Randy Newman, for the very first time" (I've got the lines wrong, I'm sure, and certainly out of context; I'm not doing them justice here).

Anyhow, I was mighty impressed. And I'm eager to throw the CD back on this morning.