Thursday, April 15, 1999
By STEPHEN COOKE -- Halifax Herald
An army stormed Halifax's Rebecca Cohn
Auditorium last night, armed not with tanks but with tank tops,
and healthy young voices of glass-shattering proportions.
They were Moffatts fans, and to say the teen boy band from B.C.
didn't disappoint them would be an understatement.
There was even a feeling of impending battle in the Cohn
Wednesday night, as homemade banners hung like regimental
colours, bearing the mottos "Dawn Loves Clint" and
"I Love Scott" and occasional screams let loose like
wild shots every time a crew member came out to adjust the drum
kit or remove a tossed bra from the stage.
When the brothers Moffatt finally hit the stage - 16-year-old
guitarist Scott and 15-year-old triplets Bob (drums), Dave (keyboards)
and Clint (bass), the crowd cried havoc and let slip the dogs of
pop.
The Moffatts might look young, but with years of playing under
their belt they perform like pros.
Scott works the crowd into a frenzy with an inventory of mugging
and broad gestures, while tossing off accomplished solos on
upbeat pop rockers like Crazy and Raining In My Mind.
Bob takes a drum solo on If Life Is Too Short that might not have
Phil Collins shaking in his boots, but he doesn't miss a beat,
and takes centrestage for the ballad Don't Judge This Book (shades
of Kiss's Peter Criss and Beth) to deafening shrieks of "I
LOVE YOU BOB!"
It can't be easy to work under these conditions.
Clint gets to be a bit of a bad boy ("I want to set a record
for the most bras on stage"), while Dave is the Quiet One,
filling out the sound on keyboard and harmonies.
There's nothing groundbreaking about the Moffatts' shiny, happy
pop tunes, but in some ways they remind me of the Beach Boys, who
started out rewriting Chuck Berry tunes but eventually left their
mark.
When the Moffatts encored with, amazingly, Enter Sandman and
Sweet Home Alabama, it seemed that they may have ambitions beyond
radio-friendly fodder like Girl of My Dreams and I'll Be There
For You.
(Original text: http://www.canoe.ca/AllPop-Moffatts/990415_brotherly.html )