The way they should be heard

IT'S fitting that the Winnepeg wunderkinds should choose the relatively intimate setting of Whelan's in Wexford Street to showcase new material after all, Crash Test Dummies evolved in the college bars of Canada before growing into one of America's top contemporary pop phenomena.

Tuesday night was the first of a series of "live rehearsals", and handsome Brad Roberts from Manitoba led his decidedly smart outfit through an evening of old tunes, new ideas and road tested favourites.

Whether or not you like Brad's booming baritone or his somewhat inscrutable lyrics you can at least appreciate the Dummies' well honed delivery, which displays a sharp sense of song structure and a large dollop of irony. In this pub setting, every musical nuance and every lyrical twist is preserved intact, and Roberts's rumbling voice settles on the senses like a good pint of Guinness.

The Dummies opened with the lively Afternoons And Coffeespoons, establishing an instant, smooth familiarity into which they could slip such new material as There Are Many Dangers, He Liked To Feel It and A Worm's Life. Keyboardist Ellen Reid proved a worthy accomplice to Roberts, balancing his baritone with her own quirky harmonies, and when she took the lead vocals for the bands rendition of XTC's Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead she pulled some endearingly goofy faces in the spotlight.

New songs like The Over achievers and Our Driver Gestures juxtaposed clipped guitar riffs with thoughtful, folksy passages, and older songs like The Ghosts That Haunt Me Now and Superman Song showed that Roberts's preoccupations with death and omnipotence were there right from the start.

When the band threw in the odd tune from their mega selling second album, God Shuffled His Feet, the audience stood on its toes Swimming In Your Ocean had a mildly erotic undercurrent, When I Go Out With Artists was an erudite study of artist envy, but it was still impossible to tell if the title track was a parable or a rather grandiose joke. I guess that's the whole idea.

Crash Test Dummies play Whelan's every night through Saturday the tickets are already sold out, but even if you don't like the band all that much it's worth it to try and get in this is the way they should be heard, their bassy tones wafting over the smoky pub atmosphere and washed down with a nice, throat soothing drop of Arthur's finest. Mmmm mmmmm Mmmm mmmmm.