It’s always a difficult time for a band if they lose their main singer, it worked ok for Genesis because Phil Collins was not only a member of the band, but he wasn’t that dissimilar in sound to Peter Gabriel.

When the Canadian band the Barenaked Ladies (BNL) lost Stephen Page, there is little doubt that they lost an astounding vocalist, however, Page was not the only vocalist in the band and while the loss of Page was a blow to fans, the band still retained four singers.

The original line up shot to fame with their 2009 live album Rock Spectacle and Stunt, the following studio album, this means that this album is the first live recording of the new four piece band and the first live album since 2009.

BNL Rocks Red Rocks was part of the tour that the band had undertaken with Colin Hay, part of the Last Summer on Earth 2015 tour. Hay even appears on the album.

Personally I was glad that the band found success even though they lost Page, they were neither better nor worse, just different and certainly different enough to score their greatest success by providing the opening song to The Big Bang Theory.

The new album has sixteen tracks which cover both old songs, originally sung with or by Page and tracks from their post Page era, including the inevitable rendition of The Big Bang Theory theme. Overall the band’s sound has changed little over the years and they have added many other influences, but you can still hear an undertone of their acoustic beginnings.

The only thing that has changed since becoming a quartet is that the overall sound loses some of the punch that the live quintet had. This is especially true of the tracks which appear both here and on Rock Sceptical, including 'The Old Apartment', a good rendition of this song, 'Brian Wilson', which presents a gentler version, where a gentle version should not be. 'If I had a $1,000,000' recovers the older tunes with a brilliant singalong version. The last of the old stuff is covered with the inclusion of their most successful single 'One Week'.

Colin Hay is invited to join the band to sing his 'Who Can it be Now' and the album closes with a very reasonable rendition of Led Zeppelins ‘Rock & Roll’.

Keeping the idea of mixing old and new the album kicks off with 'Get Back Up' and here the BNL are on firmer ground as the rest are post Page, so play to the quartet's strengths, picking tracks from Silverball, Grinning Streak and Snacktime, with the tracks 'Odds Are', 'Gonna Walk', 'Falling for the First Time', 'Passcode', 'Light Up My Room', 'Duct Tape Hear', 'Pinch Me', and 'Drawing'.

Although they have lost the range that Pages voice offered, the BNLs have continued to prosper developing a softer, but by no means lessor, sound.

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Charles Packer