Month: March 2012

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Concert Reviews Uncategorized

Review: Our Lady Peace – Bronson Center (Junofest)

OLP for $20?!  Sign me up!  That’s how much it cost for a ticket to see them at the Bronson Center on Friday night…part of the Junofest activities in town that night.  Fantastic!  Special thanks to Benoit who lent me a Junofest wristband which allowed Krista and I to get access to the floor level which is WAY better than the balcony level!

Krista and I started out the night at Mill Street Brewpub which finally gave me a sub-par dining experience…the burget was a little too slippery with grease than I care for…but this is a minor point…Mill Street is my #1 spot for food and drink now.  It blows the competition out of the water.

We arrived fairly early (and found a new area of Ottawa…who would have thought there is an easy way to cut from Mill Street Brewpub to Bronson Street?) to secure some good seats and settled in for a band called The Pack A.D. (which I wondered it they were a Mom/Daughter combo?).  They were entertaining and I think they are at Bluesfest this year.

OLP took the stage and the crowd was up for anything!  I was excited to hear some new tunes from their Curve album as well as the classics.  The band did not disappoint.  They opened up with a few new tunes which I thought were fantastic.  This was stuff that was getting me really excited for the new album.

I personally feel as a band playing new tunes to an audience, the anticipation must be high for them.  Here they are, throwing out some songs that no one knows and we all know that a crowd enjoys tunes that they know and love and have formed memories around.  Here is a song you’re personally excited about, but what if it flops?  However, at the same time, this same song can be something that will be a hit with the crowd in the future after they’ve had the opportunity to fall in love with it.

Luckily, the crowd ended up falling in love from the first time of hearing it.  It doesn’t hurt that the band was in top shape and Raine Maida is definitely the most interesting frontman I have come across.

Highlights:

  • Heavyweight…Love, LOVE this new tune and the band was really killing it.
  • Third song in, the band stops everything and invites people out in front of the stage as well as down from the balcony.  You could tell the security people were freaking out but the band reassured them that nothing bad would happen.  AWESOME!
  • Julia acoustic!
  • One Man Army!

Two thumbs up for the night with Krista.  I’m excited to see them again at Bluesfest.  By the way, their new album may be their best since Spiritual Machines.  Just saying.

Setlist:

Allowance

Fire in the Henhouse

Superman’s Dead

Innocent

All My Friends

One Man Army

Is Anybody Home?

Starseed

Julia (acoustic)

Find Our Way

Somewhere Out There

Clumsy

Heavyweight

 

Encore
As Fast As You Can

Paper Moon

4AM

Categories
Concert Reviews

Review: Van Halen – Scotiabank Place

On the bucket list is Van Halen and we got to see them at the Scotiabank Place.

We started off the night over at Vero and Martin’s place for a great supper and then we ran off to the other end of town to pick up Claude. Aaron and Trish met up with us later and we took seat in our Section B (Center), Row 23 which is an excellent row placement for future readers of this post.

Kool and the Gang opened and I recognized a few songs and was able to appreciate what they had to offer the crowd that night! Two thumbs up for and the Gang!

A word of Van Halen…I can’t consider myself a huge Van Halen fan. I got into Van Halen with the Balance album which was VERY late into their career, and then I had their greatest hits album as well as 1984. That’s it. That’s all I knew. Personally, I think I was more of a Van Hagar fan, but hey, not a big deal.

However, it was sort of a big deal for me at the concert. This was the original lineup of Van Halen which is a privilege to see, but as a semi-fan, it just didn’t blow me away as a concert. However, I’m glad I brought Martin along because he says he has all the albums and is a huge fan and he was super impressed. So I can say that it was a great show for the fans.

The interesting thing is that they don’t bother with their songs that they recorded with Sammy Hagar. So…Claude said if he would have known that, he probably wouldn’t have paid what he paid for the show. It was quite pricey. I have to say that it is strange to see a band who literally plays half of their back catalogue.

That being said, they were in top shape. They played a good selection of their early albums as well as some cuts from their latest album ‘A Different Kind of Truth’. I was entertained musically…I really enjoyed Wolfgang on the bass guitar and of course, the guitar God himself, Eddie Van Halen was pretty impressive! David Lee Roth had this weird timing with some of the words which threw me off, but all in all, it was entertaining to see them.

So, that’s that. Wasn’t blown away by the concert but that was due to me not being the hugest fan to begin with. I think if they introduced their entire back catalogue, everyone in the stadium would be hopping. But I can’t fault them for that…the fans of early Halen were in for a treat that they haven’t seen since the early 1980s.

Setlist:
Unchained [Fair Warning]
Running With the Devil [VH]
She’s the Woman [Different Kind of Truth]
Romeo’s Delight [And the Cradle Will Rock]
Tattoo [Different Kind of Truth]
Everybody Wants Some [Fair Warning]
Somebody Get Me a Doctor [VH II]
Chinatown [Different Kind of Truth]
Hear About it Later [Fair Warning]
Oh, Pretty Woman [Diver Down]
You Really Got Me [VH]
The Trouble With Never [Different Kind of Truth]
Dance the Night Away [VH II]
I’ll Wait [1984]
Hot for Teacher [1984]
Women in Love [VH II]
Girl Gone Bad [1984]
Beautiful Girls [VH II]
Ice Cream Man [VH]
Panama [1984]
Eruption [VH]
Ain’t Talkin’ About Love [VH]
Jump [1984]