Live Review: Ben Caplan & The Casual Smokers

It's only fitting that the 2014 Sydney Festival kicked off within the red velvet and polished wood of The Spiegeltent in Festival Village, if only the village had been ready on time. Despite the last minute rush to pull the site together, the night (or rather, the afternoon) was saved by the wild man of Canadian folk, Ben Caplan, as he took to the tiny stage with a mish-mash crew that are the Australian formation of The Casual Smokers.
More than just a musician, Caplan is an all-round showman. Warm and funny (if a bit rehearsed), the gravel-throated bluesman jumped with ease from guitar to keys to banjo and back again. Playing most of the tracks from his debut, In The Time Of Great Remembering, Caplan and co. roused the crowd into spurts of singing, sighing, screaming and thumping all in a set that came in under 90 minutes.
The Spiegeltent set felt like a 1920s tent show as Caplan whirled through a repertoire of blues, bluegrass, folk and some bizarre Yiddish moments. Though Caplan is clearly the focus, it was evident from the first bars of opener, Southbound, that this was not a one-man-show. Jaron Freeman-Fox was impressive on violin throughout, and in Seed Of Love and Belly Of The Worm, the addition of Tamara Murphy's vocals helped add light to Caplan's dark dramatics.
Caplan is often likened to the iconic Tom Waits, a comparison most obvious in the slow and slinking Devil Town and the menacing Under Control, but his set is more than a Waits tribute. His final two tracks, the Eastern-European jaunt, Stranger, and the wilder blues of 40 Days, 40 Nights showed the spectrum Caplan is capable of and ended the night with a bang.