Singer-songwriter Dallas Green has become somewhat of a musical renaissance man in recent years. As a founding member of seminal Canadian post-hardcore band Alexisonfire, Green provided the melodic yin to singer George Pettit’s screamo yang. Green’s solo side-project-turned-full-time-gig City and Colour saw the talented artist taking on a much more introspective folk approach to songwriting. And the band’s most recent effort, Little Hell, sees Green’s musical tastes evolving even further, incorporating more rootsy, borderline country influences. The full range of Green’s past and future was on full display last night as City and Colour paid The Pabst Theater a long overdue visit.

Rhode Island-based The Low Anthem opened the show in undeniably impressive fashion. The five-piece group deftly shuffled between an array of unique instruments seemingly by the song as lead singer Ben Knox Miller kept the crowd enraptured with his Dylan-esque rasp and 1920s paperboy outfit. The set came to a crescendo during its finale when the band encouraged the crowd to call the person next to them on their cell phone and put each phone on speaker. The result was mesmerizing as a chorus of digital feedback resembling crickets pulsed throughout the theater, serving as a fittingly psychedelic backdrop as this truly unique band exited stage right.

City and Colour then took to the stage and immediately controlled the room. What you have to understand about Dallas Green’s voice, if you have not had the pleasure of hearing it, is that his falsetto has few equals. And as the band played through a set of tracks ranging from the recent Little Hell to songs that predate Alexisonfire, Green’s voice took center stage and did not relinquish its hold over the audience until after the final encore of “Comin’ Home.” Of particular note was a three-song interlude where Green performed hauntingly beautiful solo versions of “Day Old Hate,” “Body In A Box” and “What Makes A Man.”

The country–tinged side of the newer material shone through more live than it does on the album, leading you to wonder if this is the general direction the band is heading. Or maybe it was just that the guitar player was decked out in head to toe cowboy gear from the hat to the boots that was throwing me off. Either way, it seemed like a very genuine and natural transition for a band that has already covered so much genre territory through the years. And with Green at the helm, they could release an album of harp-driven hoedowns and it would probably sound angelic.

Photos by Kevin Kosterman. For more photos click here!