Canadians Penner and Wood may look like a grizzly bear teamed up with John Malkovich, but these are very serious musicians with an imaginative approach to their craft. Wood sits quietly playing electric guitar and dobro, adding backing vocals, while also fiddling around with electronics. Penner dominates the stage, either standing out front or sat at the small drum kit, singing, playing acoustic guitar and harmonica, percussion and more electronics.
The songs are lengthy by conventional standards, but each number includes a variety of tempos and lyric styles, breaks for Woods guitar work, and end up as mini symphonies. Rock, folk, blues, hip hop are amongst the influences melded together to create the Penner and Wood sound.
The electronic background soundscapes are mesmeric, the driving rhythms on the rockier number get the feet moving and the lyrics intrigue. In the first half Penner talked little, with only one song getting anything by way of introduction. He said more in the second, and showed he's a fine storyteller. It's a shame he doesn't use that skill more. Whereas his singing is fascinating. It's not, technically, a great voice, but he makes great use of what he's got, pushing the boundaries of his range, gruff, soft, loud, whispering.
At times I felt lost in the complexity of the pieces, so that the occasional simple guitar and vocal number came as a relief. Yet it was a surprise each time to realise the set was an end and 45 minutes had suddenly passed. So they were definitely doing something right!
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