Team GDW have been fortunate enough to catch up with some great Canadian artists making their debut performances here in our neck of the woods lately. Just a few weeks ago, we welcomed Kellie Loder to our home town of Shippensburg for a late-addition to her first US tour. Shortly afterwards we caught up with The Steel City Rovers, who are no strangers to the US, but just played their first show in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And this past weekend, Toronto singer-songwriter Rob Moir made his inaugural performance in Washington DC, and there was no way we wanted to miss out.
With a small string of concert dates in the US north east this month, Moir’s invitation to perform here in our nation’s capital came courtesy of Sofar Sounds. And with our good fortune in obtaining tickets to this popular, intimate series, we were incredibly excited to catch up with one of our favorite road warriors once more. Finding ourselves in a wonderful loft on 7th Street, Rob opened the show with a five track set list, selecting music from all three of his full-length albums to date. Dedicating his opening track to Canada, “Cold” was the first of three tracks taken from his 2013 “Places To Die” album, adding both “The Fear” and “Oh Margot Please.”
“This next song is dedicated to anybody in the room tonight who has ever had a hangover before,” Rob advised prior to his second number. “There’s always statistically one, but you don’t have to point them out. My friend in England taught me this expression for a very special stage of hangover, and he calls this stage, The Fear.” Pausing naturally, to further pique the curiosity of those gathered before him, Rob would continue this tale. “And what The Fear is, you wake up still drunk. The Fear climbs into your body like a ghost passing through the wall. And you’ll know when you have The Fear, because when you try to interact with the general public on the streets here of Washington DC, you’ll be terrified of everybody.”
Having featured Rob’s 2018 “Solo Record” album here at GDW last November, we were delighted to hear the addition of his CBC-aired single, “Sometimes You Gotta Go,” on this particular evening. “This is the first song that I ever had in my music career that got played on national radio in my home country of Canada,” he shared. “I do feel that I should be more specific, and tell you that they only play the song between the hours of 4:37am and 5:17am, which I’m sure we can all agree is the BEST time to be played on the radio.” And with a brief nod to his 2015 “Adventure Handbook” album, Rob would share tales of an earlier European tour undertaken on a bicycle, before sharing “Wilderness” from that release.
Easily encouraging some crowd participation during “Oh Margot Please,” Rob received a heartfelt round of applause at the close of his set, and showing his appreciation, announced that he planned to return to the US north east again very soon. Team GDW shall certainly be keeping tabs on Rob’s tour dates, and very much hope to spend time with this particular singer-songwriter again next time he’s in our back yard.
Set List:
- Cold
- The Fear
- Sometimes You Gotta Go
- The Wilderness I Know
- Oh Margot Please
The British guy that crossed the ocean and crash landed in central Pennsylvania (to quote Greg Keelor, “And I wonder what am I doing here?”). As the youngest of four siblings, exposure to music from a very early age nurtured my passion and appreciation for many musical genres. Continuing to discover some amazingly diverse and talented musicians based in Canada, I gravitate to live music experiences and remain devoted to spreading the word about such a vibrant music scene.
