... Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop of Travis, October 30th

"Since this tour was just going to be Fran and Andy from Travis, we thought about calling it 'Frandy Travis', but figured we'd get sued," joked Fran Healy at the start of their set at the Mod Club in Toronto. This little joke at their own expense nicely summed up the structure and tone of the North American club tour he and lead guitarist Andy Dunlop are in the middle of, which appears to be modelled after VH1 Storytellers.

We had seen Travis before a couple of years ago when they were touring behind The Boy With No Name. We missed their show at the Sound Academy earlier this year since it fell on the same night as The Walkmen opened for King of Leon. It's a very very hard choice that I don't wish upon anyone. So when we heard that Fran and Andy were doing these smaller, stripped down shows we jumped all over that like a Glasswegan on a deep fried Mars bar, in a manner of speaking.

Going in there was a feeling that this was a different type of show, and not just because of all the Halloween decorations all over the venue. Even though the show was general admission, there were rows of steel folding chairs on the floor which is unusual for your typical Friday night club gig, even with a very hard-out for a DJ set (more on that later). The stage set up was two microphones, Fran and Andy's guitars, and a banner for the Glasgow newspaper, giving the whole thing the feel of being like a little busking set-up at a fair.

The whole set had a very informal and conversational feel about it as Fran went through the band's history, with little stories about each song or the history of the band. These were accentuated by a slideshow, though it was more of the Don Draper variety than the boring PowerPoint seminar we've all been in. The majority of these helped to accentuate Healy's wit and playful nature. One slide which was just a map of Scotland was described as "How we Scots think of the rest of the British Isles: Underwater." Another set of slides detailed the writing of "Writing to Reach You" as the confluence of a butane heater, Noel Gallagher, Franz Kafka's love letters, and a song by an American band whose name escapes me right now. These stories were always entertaining, and told with enough good humour and humility that they never seemed boring or pedantic. Rather, Healy came off as someone who enjoys what he does, has no illusions about it in the greater scope of things, and at times it genuinely shocked by quickly the band became popular (in the U.K. at least).

Mind you, you can tell as many great stories as you want, the show will be painful if the music is horrible (See: most junior high versions of Oliver!). Despite their reputation as a soft-rock Radiohead, Travis in any form actually puts on a very good show that does rock in the traditional sense. Like Johnny Greenwood, Andy Dunlop's guitar often serves as a counterpoint to the songs: buzzing over and sometimes through them, giving it all a little edge. In the more intimate setting Dunlop's ability as a guitarist shone through, confirming my belief that he is one of the more underrated guitarists playing today. His style is understated without being showy while at the same time allowing him to play a strong solo without overshadowing the song. It's a tough trick.

The set list, as could be expected from the subject matter, was of the "greatest hits" variety, though they did play a couple of B-Sides ("Twenty" and "Beautiful") as well as an unreleased song they are currently working on. As well, little parts of "Sweet Caroline" and "Footloose" made it into the set also.

"Did you bring your sleeping bags, because it's going to be a long night," Healy joked early in the set. However, the Mod Club is not just a concert venue, it is an actual club which had a DJ set booked to start at 11:00. This meant that everything started early, but also that the show had a rushed quality to it, especially towards the end. They have averaged about about 20-25 songs a night, and while I didn't keep count it didn't feel quite like it. As well, they said that they liked to do a set of requests at the end of the show, but instead in ended with them doing one pseudo-request (I didn't get the feeling they could actually make out that most of the crowd was yelling "Driftwood" and instead went into "All U 16 Girls"). Also, Fran and Andy sell their own merch, which meant that they had to wrap up even earlier than they might otherwise have.

When it came to emptying the place, the staff did as much as they could to keep the crowd orderly and moving, but yelling "We're going to have to kick you out in five minutes, so form a single line to the merchandise counter" without describing where such a line is seemed a little foolhardy. We still got our picture taken with them though!

Radiohead became the standard bearer for the second wave of BritPop before they became their own genre. Coldplay then became the new headliner, but in the middle was Travis, cutting and earnest but in it for love. Spending an evening with Fran and Andy might not make you a believer, but it will remind you about why you love music, regardless of your preferences.