L.A. Beat

Punk-folk klezmer accordionist and consummate jokester Geoff Berner is looking forward to returning to Lethbridge, Feb. 4 at Henotic with Rae Spoon.
This time, Berner is bringing his trio — percussionist Wayne Adams and Montreal based fiddler Bridgette Dajczer who performs solo as Briga and with her band Les Gitans De Sarajevo. She will also be paying a solo set of her own.
“People who come to my shows are a little off the mainstream as to musical tastes,” observed the Vancouverite.
“Whenever I  play Lethbridge, it‘s a good time. It’s a university town with lots of people who make it to the show. It‘s the first time at Henotic though,” he continued.
“People realized what a passionate instrument it is. I got one of my first festival gigs because they realized  they had enough guitar players and wanted something different. People have iPods now with a thousand songs on them and want something different on them. That’s  the way it should be,” he said adding Rae Spoon’s show is a must see.
“Rae Spoon is a genius. He plays guitar and banjo. His new CD is pretty much perfect. He plays Canadian gothic music. It’s twisted folk music,” Berner said adding he just returned from another successful tour of Europe.
“It’s a little different there, it’s pretty good, it’s a little less social,” he said adding people at his shows  there are there for the music rather than socializing with each other, with the music just in the background. More people are showing up to the European shows every time. 
Though he started out in a punk band, ‘The Terror of Tiny Town,’ Berner has been interested in klezmer music since he was young.

“That’s my background — Eastern European Jewish. I’ve tried to add some politics to the music, but once I got interested in it I found that was already there. There were guys 150 years ago singing about  executing the Tsar. There’s a song called ‘Down with the Police,’ ” he said.
“ Klezmer music has a colourful and radical history.”
So does accordion.
“I was drunk at a party and there was an accordion.  I told people  I could play the accordion as a way to torture people with it and someone called my bluff,” he said.
“ It’s a really great size. The accordion is a really great singer -songwriter instrument.  You have bass, chords and can play leads. It’s a very versatile instrument. And lots of people are doing it now,” Berner said.
“And you don’t even have to get calluses on your fingers,” he continued adding hearing the accordion on an early Tom Waits record helped convince Berner and many other people to take up the instrument.
“People realized what a passionate instrument it is. I got one of my first festival gigs because they realized  they had enough guitar players and wanted something different. People have iPods now with a thousand songs on them and want something different on them. That’s the way it should be,” he said.
The show begins at 9 p.m. The cover is $10.
—by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor

 

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