Anyone who knows me well, knows that I really enjoy the music of the Barenaked Ladies (BNL for short). They released a new album in September called Barenaked Ladies are Me (BLAM) and are currently doing a North American tour. I had the pleasure of attending their concert at the Xcel Energy Center on Sunday night. All I can say is WOW!!

I had heard that these guys were awesome in concert and I was NOT disappointed. Every tune they played was executed flawlessly. The vocal harmonies were right on. The sound system was crisp and clear. The stage was cool looking. It was also filled with typical BNL humor. For example, at one point in the show, it appeared that a fan (who was wearing an “I Love BNL” shirt) had snuck on stage to be with the band. The head of security came running on stage to quickly escort the fan and just as he started getting dragged off stage, one of the guys produced a birthday cake with lighted candles and the band began singing “Happy Birthday” to their security guy. The whole thing was just an act to get their security guy on stage so they could wish him a happy birthday. How cool is that?

There were other typical BNL antics as well. They did their classic tune Pinch Me, and one of the lines in the song is “You can hide out under there. I just made you say underwear.” Apparently, as they’ve toured, it has become tradition for people to throw underwear on stage when they get to that part of the song. For the concert, they changed the last lyric to “I just made you throw underwear.”

Last thing, and then I need to get some sleep: They did two encore sets. The first included their classic If I Had a Million Dollars. The second encore set included just one song, Ed’s excellent When I Fall.

I’ll try to write more about the concert tomorrow.

–Pete