Crash Test Dummies seem smarter than your average band referencing Pavlov’s dog and stuff like that

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 1, 1991

By Steve Newton

It’s lotsa fun being dumb at concerts, stumbling around, acting goofy, and screaming at the top of your lungs when the lead vocalist shouts, “Lemme hear ya say ‘Yeah!'”

But there are times when the primitive urge to boogie has to give way to a higher, more sophisticated level of enjoyment. Like last Thursday (October 24) when the Crash Test Dummies hit town and singer Brad Roberts spiced his between-songs patter with references to the hereafter, Pavlov’s dog, and stuff like that.

Punctuating his thought-provoking sermons with a dignified-sounding click of his tongue, the philosophy and English grad made it clear that these Dummies like to go for the cranium as much as for the toes with their music. But, thankfully, Roberts never lets that clicking tongue get too far out of his cheek.

On a stage decked out with a dozen white sheets, the Dummies roamed through most of the songs from their hit debut album, The Ghosts That Haunt Me, including their only cover tune, the Replacements’ “Androgynous”. Sounding something like a cross between Spirit of the West and the Pogues, Roberts and company made the most of their cross-breeding of folk, pop, country, and Celtic styles.

Ellen Reid was a standout on keyboards, background vocals, accordion, and penny whistle. Her multi-instrumental skills play a big part in the musical dexterity that sets the Crash Test Dummies apart from so many of the less adventurous acts around today.

To hear the full audio of the interview I did with Brad Roberts two years later, when the Crash Test Dummies were racing up the charts with the smash hit single “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”, subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 650 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with musicians since 1982.