As KJ Jansen, singer and guitarist for Calgary pop punk band Chixdiggit, took to the stage at The Bovine, he jokingly announced to the crowd, “Welcome to the soundcheck. It’ll last about 25 minutes,” making a crack about his level of professionalism. And though there was a looseness to his performance, Jansen managed to make that work to his advantage.
Right off the bat, there was a very communal vibe about this show, with several superfans up front who seemed to know all of the words to all the songs, some of them probably better than Jansen himself (one of them even sang the bassline to one song). Having put together a list of songs that he knew how to play before the show, Jansen entrusted a couple of fans up front to be in charge of choosing the setlist. This got slightly out of hand quickly enough when other people started shouting out ones he didn’t remember, but Jansen was game enough that he just rolled with it. Towards the end of his set, he began referring to the entire crowd as his band for the night and he led his “band” though singalongs on numbers such as “Chupacabra,” the 30 second long “Quit Your Job” and “(I Feel Like)(Gerry) Cheevers (Stitch Marks On My Heart).”
Jansen started off his set by saying that of all the shows happening during Canadian Music Week, this would probably be the least professional. If that’s the case, then I say professionalism be damned – he put on easily one of the most entertaining shows I saw all week, with both the audience and Jansen himself clearly enjoying every minute of it.