Smart aleck ‘power pop’ is back again
Moe Berg and Steven Page in town Thursday
He really is an adult now. Moe Berg, that is, the 58year-old lead singer of Canadian band The Pursuit of Happiness, whose biggest hit, “I’m An Adult Now,” prophesied, among other things, his reaction to the music business from which he made a stern exit in the mid ’90s.
“I really became disenchanted and I was not enjoying being onstage,” confides the Toronto resident who once lyrically opined, “I can’t take too much loud music/ I mean I like to play it, but I sure don’t like the racket/ Noise, but I can’t hear anything/ Just guitars screaming, screaming, screaming/ Some guy screaming in a leather jacket.”
He pauses on the phone. “I just couldn’t face it.”
And so Berg bought into his own song and found comfort as a behind-the-scenes producer, writer and part-time professor.
Until last summer, when a like-minded posse of smart aleck rabble-rousers from indie pop’s glory days — Sloan’s Chris Murphy, The Odd’s Craig Northey, former Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page — made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“There’s a ‘power pop’ element in everyone’s music that flows from the Beatles, Badfinger, the Raspberries and the Knack,” he notes of their musical connection.
“All these bands have a real pop sensibility.”
And so was born the TransCanada Highwaymen, a Canrock take on the ragtag ensemble once formed by country music outlaws Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash.
“I’m not gonna say we put a ton of thought into it,” jokes Berg, who played one gig in the summer with his fellow avatars of wit, snark and attitude before embarking on the current mini tour.
Technically, the multimedia show — which will include songs, video and pithy anecdotes — is billed as “An evening with Moe Berg, Chris Murphy, Craig Northey and
Steven Page.”
But don’t expect one of those laid-back songwriter circles where a bunch of geezers sit around telling war stories while strumming acoustic guitars.
“We’re a band,” notes Berg, vaguely mortified by the association. “It’s gonna be loud.” New material? Forget it. No one wants to hear veteran artists perform new songs — the universal symbol for “bathroom break” — even when they’re good.
Like the golden age of AM radio Berg and company grew up on, the show will be all hits, all the time.
“We decided to just put on the most entertaining show we can,” says the Edmonton native, who figures the band’s democratic “supergroup” structure will ease his return to the mike after a 20 year absence.
“Each of us will do our four most popular songs.”
While he declines to confirm a set list, it’s reasonable to assume it would include Sloan’s “Underwhelmed,” the Barenaked Ladies’ “Brian Wilson,” The Odd’s “Someone Who’s Cool.”
And of course, “I’m An Adult Now” in which Berg, a wizened old soul at 27, complained about having to wake up early, the perils of drugs, fading sexual potency and his aching back.
“At the time I wrote it, I was just addressing the idea of adulthood — the irony, the humour,” he explains patiently. “Definitely at that time in my life I was a little bit of an a--hole.” And now? “I think being a wise guy is sometimes a bad idea,” he notes reflectively. “But we were just who we were and tried not to do things just for the money, so we never looked back with regret. We had a great time doing it.”
I point out that at 58, he’s as old as the adults he once mocked, but the thought doesn’t register.
“I don’t feel old,” he laughs. “I feel young at heart, with stunted emotional growth.”