By Dave Gil de Rubio
In the past 35 years, the band Barenaked Ladies has left a considerable mark on pop culture. Dip into the band’s canon and you’ll find songs that plug into generation-spanning sitcoms ranging from ‘90s behemoth Friends (“Shoe Box”), appearing as a guest band on 90210’s fictional Peach Pit After Dark nightclub (they played a three-song set that included “The Old Apartment”) and more recently, recording the theme song for CBS’s mega-successful Big Bang Theory.
And while the band experienced some major line-up changes since starting in 1988 (percussionist Andy Creeggan left in 1994 while vocalist/guitarist Steven Page departed in 2009), the current foursome (Ed Robertson, Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn and Tyler Stewart) has carried on thanks to a combination of passion, kooky humor and pop smarts.
For Stewart, the joie de vivre he and his bandmates experience as a part of BNL is a key to why the band is trucking along toward its fourth decade of playing together.
“Our longevity can be attributed to a couple of factors starting with blind stupidity,” he said with a laugh. “But I would also say the fact that we communicate pretty well, get along and give each other space and respect each other’s creativity and personalities. It takes a long time to get to know somebody intimately. We make sure that we take care of each other and take care of the band in the process. I think making new music helps. If you can go to the well still and find the inspiration to write and record new songs, it energizes everybody, and I think that propels us forward.”
A large part of the Barenaked Ladies brand is a combination of infectious mischief and low-key brilliance that not informs cornerstones of the BNL canon ranging from “Brian Wilson” (which correlates the main character’s life with that of the Beach Boy founder, who also recorded his version of the song) and “Be My Yoko Ono” (narrator compares his relationship to that of John and Yoko) to the rap at the heart of the 1998 chart-topper “One Week.”
BNL interactivity with fans reached Rocky Horror Picture Story-type heights where concert-goers would bring boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese to BNL shows to throw at the band cued by a line in the 1992 hit “If I Had $1000000.” It’s a ritual that’s died down in recent years, much to the relief of Stewart.
“They stopped doing that thankfully,” he said with a chuckle. “As fun as that was, it got to be a little dangerous—having these boxes thrown towards you. But when it comes to our fans, the investment is that we feel like it’s a two-way street. We put a lot into it and our fans give us back a lot. Quite a few of them have been around for a long time. The multi-generational thing is cool to witness where kids and grand kids of people who started with us in the ’90s are coming to shows. And that’s pretty awesome to see.”
The BNL creative drive has yielded 14 studio albums with the most recent being last year’s In Flight. And given that 2023 was Barenaked Ladies’ official 35th anniversary, the band released an expanded version with a batch of live tracks recorded at a 2023 anniversary show.
“We celebrated our 35th anniversary as a band last October and it might have even been late September,” Stewart explained. “We did a live show in our hometown of Toronto at a legendary club called El Mocambo. We set up, recorded and filmed it and had a great time and I think we played a song from every one of our studio albums, which is a lot when you think about it. We had a great night and wanted to celebrate somehow and we thought it was a great chance to re-release our last record with these songs included.”
Currently touring with Toad the Wet Sprocket, Stewart promises fans more of the BNL hijinks fans have come to expect.
The band will be performing on Oct. 1 at The Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at 720 Northern Blvd. in Greenvale.
“One of the joys of making music is being able to perform it live in front of people that are excited to be there,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate over our 35-plus years in the band always to have a great audience. We try to deliver a great show every time by sprinkling in stuff from new records and deeper cuts from our long career. It also provides a little variety for the audience while keeping us on our toes.”
For more information, visit www.tillescenter.org or call 516-299-3100.
