OLP’s Maida headlines show at Town Ballroom

Preview by Joshua Maloni
Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, March 13, 2008
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, March 15, 2008

Raine Maida (photo by Katie Hawkins)

While Our Lady Peace sounds like Raine Maida, Raine Maida sounds nothing like Our Lady Peace.

As the frontman for one of Canada’s top, post-grunge bands, Maida was the voice behind songs such as “Starseed,” “Clumsy,” “Superman’s Dead” and “Naveed.”

Nevertheless, if you were expecting Maida’s solo album, “The Hunters Lullaby,” to sound or feel like those songs, it doesn’t.

“It’s very much to the left of what Our Lady Peace does,” Maida said in a recent phone interview. “It took me a while to get on this path.”

It’s a musical journey that’s taken Maida from fist-pumping rock to pensive, poetic lyrics and beatnik-style snap-claps.

“I have a great respect for what Our Lady Peace crafted,” he said. But, “I had no interest in doing that.”

As such, the 38-year-old rock star and self-described “Monday morning activist” made his own record – he even owns the songs – to reflect his current passion: the spoken word.

“The whole point of this was to have the words not be compromised,” he said.

“The Hunters Lullaby” is what Maida calls, “The quest to be a decent human being.” It’s a commentary on the current state of the world, and Maida’s desire to be more than a spectator. The first two songs, “Careful What You Wish For” and “Sex Love and Honey,” have a definite sense of urgency and a sort of Tea Party-meets-Depeche Mode vibe. Songs three and four, “Yellow Brick Road” and “The Less I Know,” feature heavy does of spoken word with touches of Middle Eastern flare and hip-hop thrown in for good measure.

The singer has said he doesn’t know how the music, recorded exclusively with acoustic instruments, will fit in today’s pop culture.

“I don’t see this as a typical, lead-singer-goes-off-to-make-a-solo-record kind of thing,” he said. “It’s vastly different for me.”

“This is just me,” Maida said. “I needed to reach out to people.”

In that attempt, the singer said he’s been successful. He called his live show “pretty dynamic,” and said the audience is “really engaged – they’re part of the music.”

Maida will headline a show at Buffalo’s Town Ballroom, 681 Main St., on Friday, March 28. He’s no stranger to Western New York, having often performed here with Our Lady Peace.

“Something has always been different about that region,” he said, noting its people, with an ability to overcome obstacles, are “a gift.”

“The Hunters Lullaby” is available in stores and online at www.rainemaida.net. For more information on Maida’s Buffalo concert, or for tickets, visit www.townballroom.com.