BY LARRY NAGER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The local edition of the Barenaked Ladies phenomenon took a giant step Tuesday night, as the zany Canadian pop band sold out a downsized Crown.
On the last night of the band's American tour, leading Ladies Steven Page and Ed Roberston proved they had the same power over 7,500 as they'd had at their smaller shows here.
The two singers, a blend of brothers Everly and Marx, had the audience singing, whistling and tossing pasta right on cue. They led their fellow Ladies - bassist Jim Creeggan, drummer Tyler Stewart and keyboardist Chris Brown (subbing for Kevin Hearn, who's fighting leukemia) through a manic, 100-minute show and 20-minute encore.
With a set list that ranged from their 1992 major label debut, Gordon, through their 1998 breakthrough, Stunt, the Ladies' clever, Beatle-esque pop and off-the-wall antics drew not just its biggest, but its widest audience yet.
From young teens to 40-somethings, the crowd knew all the words, and not just to the Ladies' No. 1 hit, "One Week." In the band's longest-running ritual, the crowd sang and tossed macaroni-and-cheese dinners during "If I Had $1,000,000."
And of course, there was lots of comic improvisation.
One running gag was about the weirdness of Cincinnati chili. "Funky" was Mr. Robertson's description, which, in the world of Barenaked Ladies, immediately led into a song with Mr. Page's chanted hook, "Funky chili."
After the rain of macaroni hit the stage, Mr. Page returned to the chili theme. "This is the sole reason we would never, ever admit to liking Cincinnati chili," he explained.
The night's manic finale featured the band hilariously doing hip-hop dance routines, Mr. Page singing "My Heart Will Go On" and Mr. Stewart rapping "It's All About the Benjamins."
