I’m not exactly sure what I expected when I went out to B.A. Johnston’s show on Friday night, but it certainly wasn’t having a shirtless man’s back against my chest as he poured a pink White Claw into my mouth.
But that’s exactly what B.A. Johnston did – right after he took a White Claw while singing passionately about how he can’t stop stealing stuff from work.
Armed with just a retro disc player, a beat-up acoustic guitar, and a keyboard that was short a few keys, the Hamilton-based performer electrified the packed bar with out-of-the-box song lyrics and antics that made me, for once, choose to laugh into the void and save my usual screams.
B.A. Johnston is what you would get if you took perfectly good Canadiana and shoved it in the microwave for a full half hour, or if The Tragically Hip and Weird Al Yankovic had a forbidden lovechild and left it to fend for itself outside a Hamilton steel mill.
His music is a mix of acoustic and kitschy electronic folk sounds, and his presence is a true dynamo of raucous fun that drags the audience directly into the performance – like when he darts through the crowd, purposely entangling attendees in his microphone cord, or draws the crowd outside to play a tune from the top of his van.
A fountain of arcane Canadian references, B.A. was bold enough to declare that Belleville’s own Hawkins Cheezies – not insulin, not the telephone – were the crowning achievement of all Canadian invention.
And then he fed the crowd several bags of those cheesies while singing a song about them.
It was right around then that I decided I had to interview him, which I did on Saturday morning.
“Being Canadian and touring Canada a lot … if the song's going to be good, it's gotta come from a place of truth or experience,” he said.
“I'm not going to start writing songs about Paris, France or something – it feels a little disingenuous. I would not know what I'm talking about. I need to write a song about, like, King of Donair.”
In a career that’s spanned decades, B.A. has amassed a cult following that has brought him around the whole country – gathering niche bits of the Canadian experience along the way, and putting oft-overlooked Canadian places on the centre stage.
“Why can't they have songs too, you know? I feel like when people talk about Canadian pride or Canadiana … I'm doing it a little bit differently.”
Fittingly enough, I bumped into him after the show at the Sault Ste. Marie Royal Canadian Legion, of all places, where he graciously agreed to the Saturday interview, and accepted a whisky shot that I bought for him.
Once off the stage, B.A. had reverted to a much more subdued version of himself, content to be part of the crowd after whipping it into a frenzy of smiles and laughter earlier that night.
“I don't think anyone would want to hang out with B.A. all the time, but, I mean, you're playing bars a lot of times, people are pretty wasted. It’s kind of like being a lion tamer,” he said. “You kind of have to be in control of what's happening, somewhat.”
As someone who feels somewhat out of place in crowds, B.A. successfully pulled that off for at least one local reporter, and I recommend anyone who gets a chance to go out and see one of his shows.
B.A. Johnston’s next show is set for May 30 in Thunder Bay.