SLCR #364: Crash Test Dummies (September 11, 2022)

I still can’t really wrap my head around this idea that it’s 2022 and the Crash Test Dummies are just going to play here every few years. I thought this was all done. I think they thought this was all done. 

I was anticipating an issue picking up the tickets, seeing as how the credit card I’d bought them with went missing (I left it at the Co-op as I am smart) and has since been replaced. The last time we saw the Dummies at the casino, I wound up with them having no record of my purchase and they gave me handwritten blank tickets with the seat numbers on them, so I was fearing the worst. I said as much to Jeff, who replied “yeah, but you’re with me,” and that put me at ease. Not only has he gotten into multiple events with missing tickets, he once made it into an entire other country without a passport. And, true to form, we had no problem with at all.

I checked out the stuff table before the show and it was pretty packed. Most of their albums were there, CD and vinyl, all autographed. And there was a wider variety of shirts than I’ve seen at most concerts. I picked up a few knickknack type things that I didn’t need at all but the urge to collect is, sadly, strong.

The opener – somewhat of a rarity at casino shows – was Carleton Stone. I’d seem him before as part of Port Cities when they opened for David Myles a few years back at the Artesian, but this was my first chance to see him solo. You know he’s famous because he had a song on Heartland, which I only mention because precisely one of you is a big Heartland fan (two of you, if one of you is Carleton Stone’s grandma) and I want to see if you’re still reading these things. Stone played a short, delightful set that was well-received. 

Maybe a little too well-received, actually. Our table was up at the front. To our right was a very excitable fan who was so excited for the Dummies, so excited for Carleton Stone, so excited for life itself. He was all about hollering to such an overenthusiastic degree that you kind of thought it had to be sarcastic. Pretty sure he was just trashed tho’.

I’ve seen and written about the Dummies many times and at this point, if you still need me to tell you what they sound like, you don’t care and never will. The key thing to me was that for all the times I’ve seen them, this was the time where it looked the most relaxed and like they were having the most fun. Ellen and Mitch had a whole routine worked out for How Does A Duck Know, which made her the best part of a song where she wouldn’t otherwise have much to do. And Brad was back playing guitar on some songs, which I don’t think I’ve seen him do since the times I saw them in 1999.

Ellen later told me that she didn’t think it was one of their best performances. There did seem to be some confusion about what song was next in the set at a few points, but it didn’t detract from the show, and anyway, I blame the setlist. I swiped one after the show and saw that it had some manual edits, so something got switched around late. 

That setlist:

God Shuffled His Feet

In The Days of the Caveman

Swimming In Your Ocean

Here I Stand Before Me

I Think I’ll Disappear Now

How Does a Duck Know?

When I Go Out With Artists

The Psychic

Androgynous

Comin’ Back Soon (The Bereft Man’s Song)

The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead

(A Little Something was scratched out and KNIGHTS was written in for Two Knights and Maidens – and they played neither)

He Liked to Feel It

Superman’s Song

Afternoons & Coffeespoons

(encore)

Heart of Stone

The Ghosts That Haunt Me

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

They have enough hits in Canada that I momentarily blanked on what the last song was going to be and then felt really dumb. I could leave this out and not tarnish your impression of me but I’ll look like an idiot for Content. Not the first time, won’t be the last.

They haven’t had a new album out since 2010’s Ooh-La-La, and with the focus on the 30th anniversary of God Shuffled His Feet, we only got one song off that album. For something that – as far as I know – didn’t sell in big numbers or get any real traction when it came out, it’s interesting to see how Heart of Stone has become an audience favourite. You could hear a pin drop during that one.  

Also an audience favourite? Ellen’s dress, primarily to the lady sitting behind us who excitedly yelled “it has pockets!” 

I’m long since back to being a civilian as far as the Dummies are concerned. I really only keep in touch with Ellen, mostly just to send each other pictures of our pets or my friends’ pets. If you got a new kitten or puppy in the past few years, odds are she’s seen them. She asked where I was sitting beforehand and made faces at me throughout the show. I tried to respond to in kind, but I was masked so had to do a lot of eyebrow work. A few of the other folks shot a quick wave or nod in my direction, which was nice. Or possibly entirely made up in my head. Really, nice either way.