A Pretty Fun Night

Well I've just returned from another Blue Rodeo concert. I'm not sure if this is number five or six for me. Kind of neat that I waited six years to see them for the first time and have now lost count of the number of times I've seen them.

The last time I saw them was in Kapuskasing back in July. It was a hot, poorly ventilated arena where alcohol flowed freely and clothes were optional. The total opposite of tonight's show.

Tonight's show in Kirkland Lake took place in a small 500 seat auditorium. According to the page promoting it this is the smallest venue of the tour. I was worried that I wasn't going to get a good seat as it was general admission and there was a huge line when I arrived. Then I entered the auditorium and saw that there wasn't a bad seat in the place. I managed to get a fifth row seat. This was by far the smallest venue I've ever been to for a concert. It was like the shows they used to put on in high school-except with better acoustics and a better sound system.

The opening act was Cuff the Duke. They got off to a bit of a rough start, but it wasn't their fault. It's their last night on the tour so the crew decided to play a few pranks on them. The first was taping the drumsticks together and putting baby powder on the top of the drums. That made a bit of a mess. It wasn't long before the smell of baby powder was everywhere in the auditorium. Two songs in and the crew sent a remote control truck on stage which startled the lead singer during the chorus of the song. The audience was very quiet throughout the set. They clapped for about 15 seconds per song. The lead singer asked "If we were to come back to Kirkland Lake and maybe play in a bar, would you be this quiet?"
"No!"

For their last song the band stepped off the stage, which is basically taking one step down and played completely unplugged without mics. The sound still carried pretty well. You could hear the guitar and understand the words perfectly. While they were playing the song two members of the crew came out with duct tape and taped the band together. They were real troopers though and somehow managed to keep playing and singing til the song was done no matter how tight together they were.

A half hour later Blue Rodeo took to the stage.

They opened with "Never Look Back", a song from their new album. Greg Keelor's mic volume was too low for the first song so Jim Cuddy ended up sounding like he was doing the lead vocal in the song. It was an interesting accident. By the next song Greg's mic was put back to the right volume. They had several guests on stage with them composing a small string section. Today happens to be the birthday of one of those guests, Anne Lindsay. They had a cake brought up for her and everyone sang Happy Birthday. It was a nice little moment. She was full of energy too. Her violin solo on "It Could Happen to You" was awesome.

Sadly the audience remained fairly quiet through most of the entire concert. The loudest they got was at the end of the keyboard solo on "5 Days in May". Though I must give the audience some credit on that. The keyboard solos were amazing. For me that was the best solo I've ever seen live on any instrument.

Since the first time I saw them my favorite part of the show has been the sing along for "Hasn't Hit Me Yet". Given how quiet the audience was I was worried this would not happen this time...and I was right. Greg came out in front of the stage and started playing and the audience didn't sing along. "Whats wrong?", Greg asks, "You don't know the words?"
The audience said "Yes".
"Well come on folks, lets sing". Finally they started very weakly but by this point we were at the chorus. I was really unhappy about that for the rest of the song.

At the end of the show they said they'd come out and sign CDs. So I bought one for the sake of getting a signed copy. (I now have an extra CD copy of "The Things We Left Behind". If anyone wants it let me know) They came out and were very friendly. I talked to Bob Egan about one of his solo albums, "The Glorious Decline". He was surprised that I brought it up and jokingly said "So, you're one of the 300 people who bought it". I had to move along quickly as there was a pretty big lineup behind me.

Overall I'd say this is the finest performance I've seen from Blue Rodeo. I only wish the audience had been a little more lively. This is the first concert I've been too where everyone was sober. Maybe that had something to do with it.

Set List:
Never Look Back
One More Night
Rain Down on Me
Don't Let the Darkness in Your Head
Head Over Heels
It Could Happen to You
In My Bones (the fellow behind me thought this was going to be Dark Angel. So did I actually til the cello kicked in)
Candice
Rose Coloured Glasses
5 Days in May
All the Things That are Left Behind
Cynthia
Wasted
And When You Wake Up
Gossip
Heart Like Mine
Trust Yourself
Hasn't Hit Me Yet
Diamond Mine

Encore:
Til I Am Myself Again
Try
Lost Together