http://thechronicleherald.ca/ArtsLife/1111207.html
Great Big Sea has them roarin’ in the aisles
By STEPHEN COOKE Entertainment Reporter | Concert Review
Sat. Mar 14 - 5:57 AM
Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea rocked the Halifax Metro Centre on Thursday. (ERIC WYNNE / Staff) |
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Last month it was the Rankin Family at the Metro Centre, this month
it’s Great Big Sea on the same arena stage, and next month will see the
return of Rawlins Cross at the Rebecca Cohn. Holy East Coast flashback!
To be fair, Great Big Sea has stayed the course — this week marks
the Newfoundland band’s 16th anniversary — and its latest album
Fortune’s Favour produced with Hawksley Workman is also one of its most
balanced when it comes to taming the two-headed great beastie, torn
between earnest guitar pop and primal coastal folk.
The balance certainly worked for the 6,500 fans attending Thursday
night’s Metro Centre show, whose enthusiasm dimmed about as much as the
band’s, which is to say never. The group took to the stage with the new
album’s Love Me Tonight, a glossy pop tune showing off the band’s
harmonies in excellent light, with a flood of melody in Alan Doyle’s
vocal and Bob Hallett’s tin whistle, but it was the traditional
favourite Donkey Riding that got those in the floor seats on their
feet, followed by a particularly fevered rendition of The Night Pat
Murphy Died which took care of the rest of the room.
"This is a golden opportunity to have the greatest night of our
lives! ARE YOU READY?" asked Doyle of the crowd, which didn’t seem to
need much prompting, before the tale of master sailor Jack Hinks.
And if anyone was wondering if Great Big Sea would have anything to
say about the Cougar Helicopters chopper that went down in the waters
off St. John’s earlier that morning, Sean McCann struck a sober note
saying, "I heard there were four search planes sent from Halifax. Thank
you for sending your people to help our people."
The yearning ballad England followed, with McCann’s heartfelt
description of the perils of working at sea, so far from home. It was a
quiet moment, but in the midst of rousing choruses and
testosterone-fuelled folk, it was the evening’s most memorable.
The party atmosphere soon continued however, with Doyle strapping on
a black Gibson Les Paul for the power pop of When I Am King, and
Everything Shines served as a fine example of how the band can merge
traditions, with Hallett’s lively accordion part fleshing out the
radio-friendly melody. The gruff-voiced instrumentalist got his own
spotlight with Helmethead, the rowdy saga of a minor hockey league
bruiser with a way with the ladies, generating a rinkful of fist
pumping and chants of "fare thee well!"
Finally the band got around to acknowledging its 16th anniversary,
which occurred on Wednesday, with Doyle remarking, "I think the first
quarter of our career has gone really well. We’re just coming through
the warm-up years."
"Eventually we’ll be really good!" added McCann with a grin.
To prove it, McCann led the band through one of the craziest
renditions of that East Coast chestnut Mari-Mac I’ve ever heard them
do, with strobing lights flashing as drummer Kris MacFarlane led them
through double and triple time. Then it was a tear through Ordinary Day
that left the audience clapping, stomping and jumping, shouting for
more.
Great Big Sea didn’t disappoint, coming back for an encore that
included the song a bunch of fans near me had been chanting the title
of all night long — Old Black Rum — making me think that for many the
song didn’t mark the end of the night, just a prelude to further
shenanigans.
If there’s a better act to share a bill with Great Big Sea than
Vancouver powerfolk quintet Spirit of the West, I’ve yet to hear of
one. Aside from their obvious influence on the headliners, Spirit of
the West are practically honourary East Coasters, thanks to the
adoption of so many of their catchy anthems by the stars of the local
pub circuit.
Like Great Big Sea, Spirit of the West rose above those roots years
ago thanks to the gifted songwriting of John Mann and Geoffrey Kelly
and the instrumental skill they share with bassist/mandolinist Hugh
McMillan, multi-instrumentalist Tobin Frank and drummer Vince Ditrich.
Their spark hasn’t dimmed over the past quarter century; Mann’s
distinctive tenor sounds lyrical as ever on Venice Is Sinking, and he’s
still a dynamo, spinning and kicking to Frank’s accordion solo. They
also know their audience, getting the Metro Centre on its feet with two
of the best drinking songs ever written, Home for a Rest and The Crawl,
the last featuring some hilarious mock-Irish dancing by Kelly and
Ditrich, "kind of like Michael Flatley meets Bruce Lee."
Liverdance beats Riverdance any day.
(scooke@herald.ca)
"Know thyself and to thine own self be true."
~Will Shakespeare