What a night!

The boys were awesome last night! They played a lot of old stuff and not a lot of new stuff. Which was good because I went with 7 other people and some of them had heard the old music more than the new stuff. Half and my group had never been to a GBS show before.

Kris did the solo last night, he played a Bryan Adams song, I don't know the name, but I know the lyrics, sort of.

There was quite a lot of banter and Murray spoke at a couple points. In fact, last night, the only one who didn't speak at all was Bob, though he did sing.

They played 'Lukey' which I hadn't heard in concert at all on this tour. During that song, I held up a banner that said "Way to Go Murray!" during Murray's bass solo. Alan pointed it out to Murray, but someone I was with said that Bob saw it first, but when Murray saw it, he smiled.

They only had one encore last night, which was a little disappointing.

Here comes a funny part:

We decided to wait for the guys outside the bus, but we were told to go to the stage door, so half our group went there and the other half stayed at the bus and we would phone each other if we saw anything. I was by the stage door and ushers kept coming out of the door and when they came out we said "usher" in a disappointed voice.

We got a few phone calls with no news, one saying that the bus was starting, one saying that it was driving away and ushers said that they had already left, one said that they didn't know anything and another said that they were on the bus, but our friends (by the bus) had moved to a different spot and hadn't seen the guys get on the bus.

Finally, we got a phone call saying to "Get over to the corner quickly" and everyone by the stage door ran really fast and we got to meet Murray and Kris. I've met them, but most of my friends had not. So that was good for them. Not to mention I liked meeting them again too.

Alan was there, but he had a sore throat and left before I got there (My friends told me) Poor Alan, well I guess another time.

Overall, great show.

Thanks

gbsiscool

I remember your poster! I was the girl in the blue jacket, my friends and I were talking to you guys about Moxy Fruvous in the back before we all ran around to the front. 

It was such a great show! This was my first GBS concert (although I get to go again tonight, yay!) and it was awesome. Kris's solo was "Cuts Like a Knife" and the singalong to the "na na na na" part was really cool.Here are the songs I can remember them playing, not really in order:

Love me tonight

England

Dream To Live

River Driver

The Old Black Rum

Mari-Mac 

Company of Fools

Lukey

Helmethead

General Taylor

I'm a Rover

Scolding Wife (yay Murray lines!)

And a whole bunch more that are all running together in my head. Did anyone get the setlist? Or at least just have a better memory than me, lol. I was hoping for "The Mermaid", but oh well, maybe they will play it tonight! They kept making jokes about Metallica (because there was a Metallica concert on tuesday in vancouver) and playing bits of metallica songs, that was pretty funny. They all seemed pretty tired though and made a lot of comments about how they were excited to be going home soon. 

I'm really hoping to meet the other guys tonight after the show, but if they are tired I understand too. It's going to be awesome though, even more fun than last night because tonight I will be in the front row, Stage Sean! Woot woot!

Oh yeah, I remember that!

gbsiscool

I enjoyed the show. Iwas 3rd row Sean. I also enjoyed the joked about metallica. I t was funn when sean told alan ot pick a figt with someone less touh. So alan said. James Blunt. And sean said he's toughth. He used ot be in the Army. then they kinda made fun of Moby. Aaln met him once at 4 am. He offered him Tea. Moby Did. Then alan said that would make a good Biker gang. Mettalica, moby, James blunt. oh they did the nigt pady murthy died. Like 3rd song in I think. 1 at the end I dont know the name of. It was right before old black rum. I think.

I just found out that I have tickets to tonight's show!

gbsiscool5531

PS: I hope Alan's voice is better.

Welcome aboard, BeneMach.

That was beautiful.

It is an amazing phenomenon about Great Big Sea: WE are Lifted by their energy and their optimism. Their powerful effect can be life changing! 

Glad you got to have that feeling of being Full of Life given back to you.  Sean was just talking about that in his blog -  its what keeps me going back for more too!

Cheers!

BeneMach,

That was one of the most beautiful things written about this band. What a tribute to them, and to you, too. It's wonderful what pieces of our souls music can touch when no one else could get through. Ordinary Day was also a catharsis for our family, too. Glad you went to the show, may you be blessed with many more. Post all you want, whatever you want. I so enjoyed reading that.

Anne

Heya,

My wife and I were at the show too. But unlike youse lucky concert-goers, we were up in the nether-reaches of the balcony. That said, it was still a very good show. It's the fourth time my wife and I have seen GBS, and while we appreciated a great deal, after the first song that Alan tried to belt out we both looked at each other and winced - it was clear that Alan was not feeling well.

Later it seemed that Sean's voice was a little strained too (perhaps in trying to make up for Alan). Because we were noticing it, it got to a point later on that I mentioned that Alan was sounding like Fred Scheider (B-52's) as he began talking more and more lyrics.

That said - and I want to make this clear - knowing how much Alan must have been hurting, we had to give him huge props for making it through to the end. I mean, how many concerts have you noted where the singer has taken the night off because of a slight issue with their voice? Well, it's a night off for them - but it's a tremendous disappointment to the fans. For example, if Alan had taken the night off, Benemach would not have had such an amazing experience. So, it's just another example of why GBS is one of the best touring bands you could ever buy a ticket for.

I also liked their random riffing bewteen songs - that Metallica/Blunt/Moby bit was quite funny (Alan should do an album with Moby called, "Tea with Moby" ;) ) - as was Alan mentioning that he decided to stay in Calgary the night before (and then his realization he prob shouldn't have told us that!), and then there was the occasional sexual innuendo remark, which you can tell some (mostly Alan) want to take it a little farther but others (mostly Sean) wants to keep things relatively clean. It just helps remind me that they're still just boys from The Rock, even though they have thousands (millions?) of adoring fans.

Kris's solo was pretty cool. He's got a nice voice - another GBS thing is getting talented people to work with them - and while we were sure he was going to do Summer of '69 - I liked his choice better. It was funny looking around at some of the younger crowd - Cuts Like a Knife was a very popular song - especially around here, thus most everyone in my age-group (and older) knows it - so it was interesting to see some of the younger blank stares as the older folks sang along.

As I said, overall good job - courageous even. There's no doubt that I will likely be buying tickets as long as GBS keep touring.

Thanks boys!