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I and pitifully few others got to bask in Andre's voice last night at the Record Bar, where the Toronto musician and his band kicked up a small, furious eruption of folk-rock 'n soul -- wailing out love songs of Ethier's composing, getting all Pentangley with dark, ancient-seeming folk covers "Blackwater Side" and "Black-Eyed Gypsy" and turning out an aching rendition of Fred Rose's "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain." Ethier strummed guitar or baritone ukulele throughout the set.

His backing band included a keyboardist who doubled on guitar, a bassist and a drummer, and a saxophonist who doubled on flute and sounded awesome on both. The show roiled to a climax with "Pride of Egypt," the final track on Ethier's latest, On Blue Fog, which references pharaoah and the Israelites (When I press my black lips to your Hebrew nose/I just can't help feel for the sphinx/She was once the pride of Egypt) and plain old heartbreak (Put a knife right through my name in your diary). He also had a song called "Cop Killer" -- about a horse that kills a cop. Damn, what a songwriter. Read my blog post from yesterday for more on this dude.

Speaking of gifted lyricists, Dan Bejar ("bay-har"), whose solo moniker is Destroyer, is one of. You may know him as part of the New Pornographers triumvirate, alongside fellow songwriters A.C. Newman and Neko Case. (Why they have so much awesomely original talent in Canada is the pop music mystery du jour.)

Destroyer's songs are wordy, introspective and incantatory bedroom/park-bench epics. On his past two albums, Destroyer's Rubies and Trouble in Dreams (I'm not familiar with his work previous to these) the typical Bejar song begins with a simple strummed pattern, him uttering a rambly, colorful half-spoken, half-sung monologue and then rises to a chorus of melodic dadadadadadas, as if Bejar had run out of words and begun vocalizing his meaning. His voice is almost the tonal opposite of Ethier's; it's high, nasal, a bit raspy, almost boyish. Musically, Bejar's more experimental pop. Lyrically, he's more Woody (Allen) than Dylan, and his music has a contemporary, indie sensibility, so much that the tag "singer-songwriter" is misleading -- which is probably why he calls himself Destroyer. Viva irony.

Lots of Lawrencians had driven in for the show, and it was impossible to get close to the stage. The crowd ate it up, especially this guy, who did not allow a prior hand injury (I'm thinking either firecracker or piping-hot Velveeta) get in the way of his indie-rock steez.

Also sighted, the sneaky guitar-playing soundman, caught attempting to surreptitiously add layers of guitar noise to Destroyer's already surprisingly loud set.

By the set's end (or maybe it was the encore -- I was plowed), members of Ethier's band, including the aforementioned unusually good saxophonist, joined Destroyer for an all-star jam.

I know it looks nerdy. But it rocked.

Critic's Notebook
Personal Bias: I've been a fan of Ethier since a friend introduced me to the Deadly Snakes, whose 2006 album Porcella I bought on vinyl at Little Red Rooster.
Random Detail: When Andre Ethier sang "Oh Canada" at an LA Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays game in Los Angeles, Lisa Loeb sang the U.S. national anthem. Ethier doesn't remember who won the game.
By the way: Ethier's working on a new album. It's supposedly going to be more rocky than his previous stuff. He namechecked Crazy Horse and Pink Floyd discussing it after the show.