Barenaked Ladies Tickets Continued
Barenaked Ladies began as the duo of Ed Robertson and Steven Page. The
two had gone to school together since Robertson was in the fourth grade (Page was a
grade ahead), but were not friends until they ran into each other following a Peter
Gabriel concert. Each interested to find the other liked Gabriel, they began talking and
found they had many of the same tastes. The two became friends, and when Page had an
extra ticket to a Bob Dylan
concert that no one wanted, he ran into Robertson at a party. The two attended the concert
at Exhibition Stadium (most likely on August 29, 1988). It was a period where Dylan's band
was led by G.E. Smith, and Robertson describes the show as "horrible" and "lame". The
two turned to amusing each other, pretending they were rock critics, inventing histories and
comments about the Dylan band. They also made up various band names; one of which
was Barenaked Ladies.
The full band's first release of note was the 1991 Yellow Tape. It was a demo
tape originally created for the band's performance at South by Southwest and was the first
recording to feature all five members. They spent between $2000 and $3000 on it, and sent
a copy to all the labels in Canada; they were refused by all of them. The band turned to
selling them off the stage, and wound up selling a lot of them. Word of mouth spread, and
people began asking for the tape in local stores. The stores began asking the
Barenaked Ladies for copies of the tape, and the demo tape became a
commercial release. Sales began to steamroll based simply on word of mouth and their
live shows, and the tape became the first indie release by any band to achieve platinum
status (100,000 copies) in Canada. Also in 1991, Barenaked Ladies contributed a
cover of Bruce
Cockburn's "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" to the Cockburn tribute album Kick at the
Darkness. That song became the band's first Top 40 hit in Canada.
The band's first full album, the hotly anticipated Gordon, released in 1992, was a
smash hit in Canada and included some of the band's most well-known songs, including
"Enid", the first single; "Be My Yoko Ono", the single which helped fund the album; "If I Had
$1000000", which spawned a Kraft Dinner -- or, in the U.S., Kraft Macaroni & Cheese --
throwing tradition at live shows that the band has discouraged; and "Brian Wilson", named
after Beach Boy Brian
Wilson (who later covered the song on a live album).
The Barenaked Ladies released Born on a Pirate Ship as a quartet in
1996. The album received two large boosts from the inclusion of the song "Shoe Box" on
the Friends soundtrack, and from the Jason Priestley-directed video for "The Old
Apartment", which got notable American airplay. The Barenaked Ladies appeared
as the guest band on an episode of Beverly Hills 90210, immediately preceding their 1996
tour; they performed "The Old Apartment", "Life, In A Nutshell" and "Jane" at the Peach Pit
After Dark night club. Kevin Hearn was hired as the keyboardist for the tour and ultimately
joined the band full time.
The 1998 release Stunt became (and remains) their greatest success, buoyed
by "One Week", which coincidentally spent "one week" at the number one spot on the
Billboard Hot 100. The singles "It's All Been Done" and "Call and Answer" also came from
this highly successful album.
The Barenaked Ladies' latest album is the 2006 release Barenaked Ladies
Are Me. The band continues to tour and record frequently with more releases set for the
near future.
