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Sarah Harmer at the Stanley

Last night I saw Sarah Harmer play at the Stanley Theatre. She played with a five-piece bluegrass band, and the entire evening had a very sleepy, relaxed quality to it. Though her music runs from rock to country to bluegrass, she arranged her songs for a stand-up-bass-and-no-drums kind of gig.

I had mixed feelings about the show, and preferred her straight-up rock show at the Centre last year. There were some lovely songs–“Oleander”, “Trouble in the Fields” and “I’m a Mountain” to pick three–but there were others that didn’t stand up to the bluegrass approach. “Almost” felt far too slow, “Lodestar” was a pale imitation of the original and “Coffee Stain” was crying out for a fuller sound and some harmonies.

They performed on the set of and with the lighting for Waiting for Godot (discussed here), which made for a pretty gorgeous staging. Besides the band, there was plenty to look at. The audience was appreciative though extremely reserved. I dug that, as I could sit quietly and appreciate the music without hearing people sing along. I also got the impression that the audience wasn’t that familiar with Sarah Harmer’s music. There were very few instances of that applause of recognition that you hear at the starts of songs.

I admire Sarah Harmer’s work in saving the Niagara escarpment (though, admittedly, the threatened area borders her parents’ land). However, last night she told the audience that they should become more aware of and get educated about the Sea-to-Sky highway improvements and the ‘wetlands’ (the wrong term, I’m pretty sure) that they threaten.

What’s that? An Ontario pop singer comes to the birthplace of the modern environmental movement and tells us to get educated? We recently saved a chunk of wilderness twice the size of Belgium and she’s worried about a couple of bluffs overlooking the highway? It was a tacky example of a celebrity being under-informed and wielding her power inappropriately.

All in all, though, I got my money’s worth out of the two hour set. There was no opening act (hurrah!) and she came on stage about ten minutes after the advertised start time. Very un-rock star.

This entry was posted in:Music, Vancouver
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Published by dbarefoot

Darren Barefoot is an author, speaker and digital strategist. He’s the co-founder of Capulet Communications, and co-author of “Friends With Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook”.

10 comments

  1. No, I’m pretty sure “wetlands” is the right term (backgrounder: What Are Wetlands? by Wetlands International, and Value of Wetlands, by Ducks Unlimited). My terrestrial plant ecology professor at the University of Victoria spoke at some length about the importance of the BC wetlands and the problems they are facing.

    And that was in 2001. According to a quick Google search, UVic is still active in this arena, less than a year ago stating their intention to draft and advocate a model wetlands law.

  2. Krishen: You may very well be correct, though ‘wetlands are areas on which water covers the soil or if water is present either at or near the surface of that soil’ would cover most of BC, wouldn’t it? Are the terms ‘temperate rain forest’ and ‘wetlands’ mutually exclusive? I’d have used the former to describe that terrain.

  3. No, there must be some intersection between land and water, at least some of the time. And I agree, most of the time “temperate rainforest” would probably best describe the area the Sea to Sky highway improvements are going through. However, there is a 2.4km stretch where this description is not appropriate, namely the Larsen Creek wetlands. This area is, according to conservation activist Dennis Perry, quoting the Ministry of Transportation, home to “….the most sensitive ecosystems on the entire Sea-to-Sky corridor from Horseshoe Bay to Whistler.”

  4. Sarah Harmer’s brother is a head honcho at local web co blast radius (Steven Harmer) so is probably right up to speed on local environmental issues.

  5. S Merelda: I quote Ms. Harmer at the concert: “I don’t know much about this issue”. She may be up on other local issues, but she apparently wasn’t on this one.

  7. hi there,
    came across this post via search, and i see you’re using my photo from a sarah harmer show. i’m glad you like it enough to use it, but it is all rights reserved. would you mind adding a photo credit?

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