It’s hard to beat the ByWard pubs on a Friday night, especially Valentine’s night. Though there were surprisingly few lovebirds in sight when I pulled up for the Nick Cooper Trio. Maybe they’d all gone home by the time the show started, 9:30 p.m. In any case the music was good enough to put such thoughts out of my head.
Cooper, who plays lead guitar and vocals, had light classic rock as his stock in trade. He started off with an upbeat rendition of the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer”, then kept up the tunes for over two hours. Unfortunately there were recurring problems with microphone squeal, not really the band’s fault, but still noticeable when it’s piercing your eardrums.
The Laff (Château Lafayette) bills itself as the oldest bar in Ottawa, opened in 1849, and claims that they’ve “enjoyed the company of NHL, CFL, Olympic athletes, and sportscasters and coaches. The roadies from a lot of major bands and concerts also frequent the Laff when in town.” I didn’t meet anyone like that, but I wasn’t looking too hard. All I can say is it’s got a good atmosphere, cozy but not packed, and good food at decent prices (though still higher than you’d get outside the downtown.) Also on the cool list: a musician named Lucky Ron, who’s been playing there every weekend since 1999. Definitely hope to review him in the future.
On the other hand, the architecture leaves things to be desired; I guess concert acoustics weren’t too big a priority pre-Confederation. The whole place is an “L” shape, with the band performing on one long side. So if you’re sitting in the other part, you can’t see or hear them very well. Cooper’s acoustic guitar was almost invisible when he moved too far away from the stand mic. The seating arrangement near the band isn’t optimized for looking at them, either; there was a lot of awkward craning around or sitting backwards in chairs.
Overall, the Nick Cooper Trio wasn’t breaking any new ground, but they definitely elevated a night out in ByWard.
