Marie-Claude was nice enough to offer up two free tickets to see SRB at the NAC. Since we had already picked up our tickets, I called up my concert brother in arms who has been on hiatus for awhile and he and Rachel gladly took the tickets.
We strolled in around 7:30, grabbed a Beaus beer and I marveled at my finds at the merch booth. Not only did they have a sweet poster (autographed!), they also had the Collider vinyl that I had been waiting to pick up. But the biggest find was the vinyl copy of We Were Born in a Flame…something I have been searching years for! SCORE! With vinyl under my arm, it made for awkwardness when trying to handle a beer and trying to sit down. Luckily, I had Vero with me. 🙂
We had stellar seats…six rows from the stage. Can’t get any better than that! We took to our seats and found that they were a little on the compact side…I felt a little compressed both in my chair as well as legroom. This pretty well put a damper on rocking out. But, it was the NAC and I didn’t think that there would be too many people standing up anyhow.
Zeus opened up and we marveled at the 60s/70s vibe of these guys…both in music and attire. Vero pointed out that the bass player/pianist looked like an older Ted Mosby and we had a great laugh at that all night long. I was definitely impressed by their set as it had some great harmonies, great vocals from three of the four, great guitar and all around good times. I ended up picking up their album afterwards. Two thumbs up! I even got up out of my chair at the end of their set and pretty well fell backwards as the seats in front of me were angled back so much that I collided with it upon standing up! This definitely did not bode well for standing up for the concert. But no matter…I am an old man in the concert scene and handle sitting down for a concert. Or can I?
The lights flicked on and off indicating we had a few minutes to get back to our seat. We took to our seats and boom, lights went off, everyone is sitting down but then the unthinkable happened…the band comes out and everyone stands up ready to rock for our boys from Montreal! Fantastic! The crowd was amazing this night…never wavering from their standing position all night long. This is a crowd worthy of SRB!
Clad in a denim jacket (everyone laughs at the fact that I want one, but a rocker needs to own one!), Sam Roberts hit the stage with the lads in tow and started with a couple of tunes from Collider – I Feel You and Graveyard Shift…probably my favourite tunes off of the album.
The rest of the night was a blur of pure rock and roll delights…soaring guitar solos, light show fantastico, good interaction with the crowd. As faithful followers of me know, SRB is one of my faves and I haven’t seen them in a few years and I’m glad to see they are still in full form. I enjoyed the addition of the saxophone for this tour although I think the mix could have benefited from a little more sax and keys.
After getting my face melted by the show ender “Mind Flood” the band shook hands from the stage and then the moment every fan dreams of happened to Vero and I.
Josh Trager was tossing drumsticks into the audience. Now, I have always wondered how it would feel to catch a drumstick. I could only imagine it was like this magnetic force pulling it straight to your hand. This is exactly how it felt like when the stick flew through the air and landed straight into the palm of my hand! It was like I was catching a lightsaber!
There was a moment of doubt when I went to pull it back to Vero (who also had a hand on it) and when she let go I realized there was still resistance. Turns out the gentleman in front of me also had a hold of it! There was that split second of “What is this going to turn into?” but luckily, he bowed out of it (must have been my Beatles shirt that did him in!) and voila! Vero and I are proud owners of a Josh Trager drumstick! Very nice!
I can’t get enough of the band and I can’t wait to see them again…hopefully on a summer festival tour?
Setlist:
I Feel You (excellent opener!)
Graveyard Shift (always a fave!)
Detroit ’67 (they are going for the gold with this back to back dose of energy! everyone was dancing!)
Fixed to Ruin (“Let’s get the NAC shaking!”) – This is what a good setlist gives a crowd. Just pour on the energy from the beginning and don’t let up!
Let It In
Lions of the Kalahari
Taj Mahal
Dead End (good couple of tunes from the first album!)
The Last Crusade
Where Have All The Good People Gone?
Streets of Heaven (Promises, Promises)
Don’t Walk Away Eileen
Bridge to Nowhere
Uprising Down Under
Brother Down
Them Kids
Encore
Without a Map
Love at the End of the World (the energy in this one is infectious…especially when it jumps in after the intro)
Waking the Dead (a welcome surprise!)
Mind Flood (always a pleaser)