Great Lake Swimmers and Haley Bonar warm up Brooklyn with Americana-infused folk

January 9, 2009, at the Bell House

By Eleanor Whitney
Published: January 12th, 2009 | 3:10pm

A group of brave and hardy showgoers filled Brooklyn’s Bell House, despite the biting January winds for the folk-heavy indie-rock lineup of Daniel Martin Moore, Haley Bonar, and Great Lake Swimmers.

The Minnesota-based Bonar shared eight songs to a warm reception. Performing with just an acoustic guitar and no backing band, she was able to fully command the large hall with just the strength of her voice and presence. Songs such as “Big Star” and “Queen of Everything” combined a certain biting knowingness with Bonar’s adept folksy twang and “Hawaii” was a quiet, down-tempo ballad of love and loss. The highlight and most country-feeling song of the set was “Highway 16,” a driving number that paid homage to Bonar’s home state of South Dakota.

Despite hailing from chilly, urban Toronto, the evening’s headliners, Great Lake Swimmers, filled the room with warm folk rock. With matching western shirts and bassist Darcy Yates sporting a Stubbs BBQ hat, the band’s look matched its distinctively Americana feel. This was echoed in the instrument choices of guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, banjo, and harmonica. GLS’ songs, drawn from a variety of their albums — including the forthcoming Lost Channels (Nettwerk), which will be released in March — ranged from quiet ballads to rollicking stompers.

“Various Stages” strongly featured the band’s dynamic approach to song writing — building up the sound and then delicately pulling back, a combination that encouraged audience members to sway and sing along. “Where In the World Are You” featured a quieter approach with just frontman Tony Dekker on acoustic guitar and vocals and keyboardist Julie Fader playing the flute and providing backing vocals. The combination gave the song a searching, melancholy quality. Dekker played several other songs solo, which unfortunately caused the set to wander and loose momentum. It was regained when the full band joined him again for “Your Rocky Spine,” an ode to Canada’s natural beauty, but after it the set began to feel too long and overloaded.

Despite the increasingly late hour, Great Lake Swimmers played a generous three-song encore, which included the gentle protest song “I Am Part of a Large Family.” At the end, Dekker prepared to play another solo track and announced, “I’m going to play another sad song, so everyone can go home and feel depressed. Sometimes you write a sad song and then you record it, and then you are stuck with it.” No one seemed to leave too downtrodden, though, and instead showgoers spilled back out into the cold with the warmth of the songs still ringing in their ears.

For more photos from this show visit Venus Zine's Flickr Page.