Good afternoon to you fine people.
These last few weeks have been particularly good for me. I am once again employed full time and I have been accepted to my top choices for University. Also in this time frame my sister had a child, I spent a weekend with my father and went to quite an amazing concert.
In January I bought two tickets to see Steven Page and the Art of Time Ensemble in North Bay. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to use both tickets as my father wasn't sure if he'd be working or not. It wasn't until a few days before I went to North Bay that I knew my father would be free to come to the show. The venue was a small theatre which seemed to carry the sound very well. Of course, I was in the third row so it didn't have to carry well for me to hear it. I probably would have heard it all clearly without the sound system. All of the songs performed at the concert were covers, aside from "Running Out of Ink", which are on his new album "A Singer Must Die". I was particularly impressed with Page's voice. It sounds far better live than on a record. After about six songs Page left the stage and allowed the Art of Time Ensemble to perform a classical piece which I was impressed with. Neither I, nor my father had ever seen a classical piece performed by professional musicians. After an intermission everyone returned and performed the title track, "A Singer Must Die". After the song Page asked "You all know Leonard Cohen?"
*Applause*
"Oh, would you intruduce me?"
He had plenty of amusing anecdotes between songs which I enjoyed. He actually talked more than any other performer I've seen live. Right before leaving the stage before the encore someone requested "Brian Wilson", Page quickly said "We don't have that song anymore. I lost it in the divorce". He then announced that he has a new solo album of original material coming out in a few months followed by an extensive tour in which he would play old BNL songs as well as the new stuff. He promised to return to North Bay, I hope he keeps this promise. Or at the very least perform somewhere that is within a few hundred kilometres of where I am. I'd definitely make the trip to see him again. He closed by trying to appease the audience saying "This is a song I did with my old band" before going into The Beatles' "Oh! Darling". Technically that wasn't a lie as he did perform it several times with a different band.
He said during the show he'd be coming out to sign CDs if anyone wanted him to. He kept his word and came out after about a half hour. By the time he came there were only about 15 people left. The first person he went to was a young girl, no more than 8 years old. She was very worried throughout the wait that he would not come, as was I actually for her sake. It would be quite tragic to be dissapointed at that age. The look on her face when he came into the room was priceless. He talked to her for about a minute or so and was quite nice. I was third or fourth to go to him with a CD. I got him to sign "The Vanity Project" which was the only disc I didn't yet have...well, not legitimately anyway. He was great, really down to earth and friendly. I asked him a few short questions about the upcoming album and he didn't mind at all.
I made videos of a few of the performances which can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/WLDB?feature=mhw4
One of them is currently uploading and probably won't be up for a few hours. Farewell, until next time.
