BNL Get Bare-Naked At U.S. Tour Closer

By GARY GRAFF, Launch.com, August 27th, 2001.

Barenaked Ladies fans got to see the Canadian quintet get truly bare-naked at the closing show of its U.S. summer tour Sunday night (August 26) at the DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan. The shenanigans started during opening act the Proclaimers' set when BNL drummer Tyler Stewart joined the Scottish group for one of its songs, singing in a fake brogue, and at the end of the set all five BNL members came on wrapped in white towels — and only white towels — playfully flashing the Proclaimers while Stewart mooned the audience and BNL's Ed Robertson briefly exposed a bit of his forequarters while twirling the towel around his torso. "That was not us," Robertson told the crowd during BNL's set. "There are several crew guys who look like our genitalia. That was us in the towels but not us wrapped around our waist."

BNL's show was a bit more restrained, actually, with the fully clothed Proclaimers joining them for one of the encores and a "hip-hip-hooray" cheer for the crew at the end of the night. BNL, which will release a best-of collection in October, performs tomorrow night (August 28) at Winnipeg Arena in Winnipeg, Manitoba. After that show, the group is off until it plays radio-station concerts in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, on September 21 and Foxboro, Massachusetts, on September 22.

Robertson tells LAUNCH that the group plans to keep touring throughout the year, although it's still determining its plans: "It's a little up in the air now. We might go overseas again. We might do some more playing in Canada. It's kind of up in the air."