Photographs by Sarah Rix.
“Sniff my butt”.
Yes, these are the words of a performer talking to his audience. It isn’t newsworthy to talk about Ariel Pink and remind everyone that he is unpredictable. He’s sat down during shows and has refused to sing before. With this man, everything can happen. I’ve reviewed Mac DeMarco twice before, and have praised his improvised banter. I have commended his ability to be faithful to his music while being highly entertaining. Coincidentally, Ariel Pink asked us if we like Mac DeMarco. As everyone cheered, Pink replied with a strained “meh” and expressed his lack of care for the musician. To me, DeMarco and Pink are very similar in terms of how they perform on stage.
The difference here is that Pink goes off the rails. There are two kinds of raw performances. You can perform without restraint and make a show hard to read and exciting. You can also feel unprofessional and like a start up band. Ariel Pink was both. There were times where he would put on silly voices and talk during the set. White Freckles was fun to hear live, although it felt fairly juvenile. The times it worked were highly successful, where the energy became angst and even fearful at times. Not Enough Violence felt pained and real. With his largely eclectic collection of songs, I feel as though these varied results had to do more with the natures of the songs being performed and not necessarily with how Pink approached these songs. When the songs worked, they really worked.
Then you had moments where Pink would slap one of the toms (very off time, by the way), bring out fan dancers (and told them to disperse as this wasn’t “a Prince show”) and make fun of Canadians. “We’re so high” was the way he started the show. It’s a good thing he told us, even though we knew before he even said anything. With his band being so tight musically, they pulled through many of Pink’s antics. If they were also high, they dealt with their highs a lot better.
It seems like you can either get an explosive show or a complete flop with seeing Ariel Pink live. I would say we had the former, as it was a memorable show in retrospect. The confusion and the awkwardness are part of the charm you collect when you say you’ve seen Ariel Pink live now. He’s certainly put on worse shows, and we were fortunate that he sang for us at all. He and his band had troubles at the border getting into the country (apparently, their drummer has a history). They celebrated by letting the world know they were high and unable to be tamed. That will, surely, let them have easy access back at any time. Despite being almost locked out of the border, Ariel Pink and his band were without boundaries. You were either really left out or you had the time of your life. Pink probably wouldn’t care which side you were on, as no one had nearly as much fun as he did (which meant great things for us).
Thanks to Collective Concerts for media access.
