Live: The Sunparlour Players THE TRANZAC & SNEAKY DEE'S - APR. 14 & APR. 28 It's Saturday night and it's as silent inside the TRANZAC as it is in Roy Thompson Hall's auditorium. The Sunparlour Players begin their set with a slow, haunting song that not only enhances the silence, but also somehow suits the oddness of the proscenium stage with its red and champagne-coloured velvet curtains. The trio sits, frontman Andrew Penner flanked by Dennis Van Dine and Michael "Rosie" Rosenthal, swapping instruments between songs. Not only do these guys trade instruments, often each of them plays two at a time. And not the usual suspects, but drums and glockenspiel; guitar and jingle bells strapped to a boot; and — hardest of all to comprehend — bass guitar and keyboards: at the same time, each one-handed. And to top it all off, these combinations can be exchanged at any point in a song. This richness of instrumentation is what makes these guys astounding to watch. Penner switches from moans to growls to screams in a flash, while Rosenthal adds "shouting" to the mix. Red-faced and sweating, these two pour themselves into the music, wringing every drop of sound from their instruments while Van Dine looks young, hip and composed, pale in the lights of the stage, his suit, unlike those of Penner and Rosenthal, looks crisp, belying the fact that his playing is as frenetic as the others'. In fact, The Sunparlour Players' music is so manic that, at Sneaky Dee's two weeks later, Penner says, "I'm gonna stop it there 'cause shit's breaking." Sneak's, in all its grungy glory, is where Penner sits, once again center stage, however, this time without his bandmates. Despite being alone, Penner starts this set aggressively and puts the crowd, eager for a night of citygrass courtesy of The United Steel Workers of Montreal, under his spell. Although the instruments are limited, Penner still manages to play the guitar, jingle bells (still attached to his left boot) on "If the Creeks Don't Rise," banjo, cowbell, bass drum and organ pedal board. He too has mastered the art of playing guitar one-handed while playing another instrument — in this case the cow bell. Rocking the cow bell and guitar on "John Had a Bell and a Whistle" revs the already excited audience up another gear. There's foot stomping, clapping and shouts of encouragement, driving The Sunparlour Players (Uno) to even greater paroxysms of mania. In the end a sweaty, but exuberant Penner leaves the audience primed for the main event. What more could you ask of one man?