Hayden Concert Review in Toronto

Toronto singer-songwriter Paul Hayden Desser, who performs under the moniker Hayden, played to a sold-out crowd at the Danforth Music Hall on Tuesday evening in support of his latest studio effort In Field & Town. The night marked the end of his Canadian tour which included twenty-two dates in eighteen cities.

There was something oddly appropriate about Hayden performing during one of the city’s most frigid evenings of the year. Perhaps it was the fact that nearly every article written about him makes reference to his often gloomy lyrical content, to which even he couldn’t resist commenting on, slyly suggesting that “when I read them it makes me depressed, it’s a vicious circle.” It is that very awkward, boyish charm and wittiness that had the crowd eagerly anticipating every seldom quip from the Thornhill, Ontario-born songster. Maybe it was even the lyrics from his beautifully vulnerable vignette Between Us to Hold, that made the blistering cold all the more appropriate, in which he sings about being stuck inside and teaching a girl to play his guitar while “our heater was shaking and the city was cold.”

The Music hall provided a great atmosphere and the mostly twenty-something, 1,150-capacity crowd spent the majority of the show taking in the music with hushed attentiveness. Making for an even more intimate experience, Hayden opted to leave the boys from Cuff the Duke to attend their own musical endeavors and played the set mostly-solo, only inviting a player of the trumpet to join him on stage for a couple of songs. The venue was so quiet that when a pair of seemingly-intoxicated yahoos began the kind of catcalling more appropriate of say, fans at Kid Rock show, it didn’t take long before Hayden directly addressed them and requested that “If you want to say something stupid, go to the washroom and text-message it to yourself.” Needless to say, the cheering crowd whole-heartedly agreed with the notion. In such timely fashion, that only a higher-power could take credit for it, the silly little yelper’s were removed from the venue as Hayden performed Lonely Security Guard from his new record. Amen!

Hayden coasted through an impressive set list that effectively mixed-up the works of a thirteen-year career. He gracefully made the rounds from his acoustic guitar, to a beautiful-sounding piano and his electric guitar. Highlights of the night included a stunning deliverance of the ever-so-touching Stem, Damn this Feeling, Bad as They Seem, Home by Saturday Night, Trees Lounge, and a very toe-stomping, audience-approved performance of Dynamite Walls.

Hayden’s self-deprecating charm was evident right to the very end of the set as he left the stage for only a second during the crowds’ standing applause and calls for an encore, as if to suggest that he wasn’t quite sure just how long such a request would last for. Hayden-enthusiasts were treated to a post-set consisting of Weight of the World, the wonderful Where and When and Carried Away which he had to restart, chuckling and remarking that he was “rhythmically-challenged’ and that the audiences’ hand claps had thrown him off. Why would a reclusive and depressive homebody who prefers to work by himself know how to stay in time with an audience after all? A second try at Carried away managed a perfectly in-time and downright magnetic collaboration between audience and performer that was treasured by both.