A Little Slice of Canadian Cheer

Canadian duo, Easily Amused, threw a pop rock party in the FPL this past Monday evening. Keith MacPherson and Renee Lamoureux of Winnipeg met the audience with upbeat acoustic progressions and bright vocal harmony under red and purple spotlights, showing us just how rock star Canadian twenty-somethings can be. MacPherson’s quick right hand lent his bar chord melodies a carefree, summery feel that would translate well to top-forty radio in the States. His onstage energy was epic; he didn’t go more than a breath or two without flashing an excited smile around the room. Sometimes playing rhythm guitar, others crooning to a harmonica, Lamoureux, who composed some of the band’s slower songs and alternated between back up and lead vocals, lent an interesting angle to what would otherwise be an unremarkable one-man-show. Her rich voice complimented Macpherson’s tenor well, lending strength and depth where needed. The band’s weakness was their instrumentation, which was cogent, but lacked a certain level of diversity between songs. The undulating harmony of their carefree vocals is what carried the performance. The lyrics were truly amusing. MacPherson’s anthem about polygamy bore the title “You can’t have your Kate and Edith too.”The duo recently won over $10,000 in prizes from Canadian-music.com. They were named “Canada’s best online band” in the second annual indie music contest, and received 16 hours of studio time and 500 blank CD’s. The band played with magnetic charisma, collecting audience as the show progressed. Athletes peeked over the rail, spurned from the Courtroom to hear a few tunes. They appear to thoroughly enjoy the musical life; despite a sparse turnout they were genuinely happy and quite complimentary to the sparse audience, commending their fine judgment in spending an evening at their concert.