Category: Concert Reviews

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]

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)

Oh Bronson Center, how I used to hate thee, and now I just realize that I’ve been watching the wrong concerts within your halls.

Turns out that a balls to the wall rock concert is not my favourite thing to see at the Bronson Center…but a concert like Kathleen Edward’s show last night…it was fantastic.

Flying solo to a concert is just something I have to do once in awhile, but I was very happy to find out that my colleague Dorin was going as well so he invited me along with his friends.  We managed to snag an excellent seat in the middle of the floor, right in front of a row reserved for ‘Edwards’.  It was interesting to hear some comments coming from behind me during the night as it sounded like there were uncles and aunts of Kathleen sitting there.

Hannah Georgas opened up and she was decent.  I didn’t really connect with what she was singing about, but I enjoyed a few of her songs.  It was an interesting duo.

The band came out in full force opening with a few tunes from her new Voyageur album.  I really enjoy a band like this…electric, acoustic, bass, drums, organ and a backup singer!  Fantastic!

The vibe was great inside.  Kathleen ranges from some very introspective softer tunes, to some rocking ones.  Either way, the crowd was appreciative of an Ottawa local taking the stage and sharing some stories about how she can still remember faces around Ottawa from the times she worked at Starbucks, or how she loves this town and what it gives to her in appreciation each time she returns.

At one point she said she would address the elephant in the room and someone yelled “Where’s Jim?” and she says “Yes!  Where is Jim?”  Jim Bryson has been with the band for quite a few years but was currently needed elsewhere with his two day old child!  But he ended up coming out for a few songs during the night.  I must admit that I don’t know much about Jim Bryson other than he is quite widely known throughout Canada from his solo work, his work with the Weakerthans and with Kathleen Edwards.  It was great seeing him crank out the lead guitar work and it would have been great to see him tour around with them in the past.  However, I must admit that I was equally impressed with Gord Tough on guitar.

A rare second encore of ‘Our Town’ was one of my favourites of the night when she returned with an acoustic guitar and ended the night on a perfect note.

I had a fantastic night at the Bronson Center and I will welcome a nice relaxing night there anytime in the National Capital Region.  Kathleen Edwards is one of the better songwriters I’ve been introduced to in the past few years and I’m lucky to have seen her electric stage presence.  Special thanks to Dorin, Tannis, Jason, Melissa and Sheila for letting me share in this amazing experience!

Setlist:
Empty Threat
Chameleon/Comedian
Asking For Flowers
Pink Champagne (where she talked about how it was not really a song about a wedding, but more about a time where she drank WAY too much pink champagne)
Goodnight California (one of the more rocking tunes of the night.  I was loving the solos.)
In State
Mint
Hockey Skates (with Jim Bryson)
House Full of Empty Rooms (a story about how she fell in love with her house in Hamilton but when moving on with her life had to leave it behind)
Going To Hell (one of my faves off of Voyageur and the live version did not disappoint!)
Sidecar
Back To You (I love the driving rhythm of this song)
A Soft Place to Land
12 Bellevue (with Jim Bryson)
Change the Sheets

Encore:
Six O’clock News (with Jim Bryson)
September Gurls [Big Star] (with Hannah Georgas)

Encore Two:
Our Town [Iris DeMent]

Photo by by michaelhurcomb.com

Krista, Vero and I went to the Mill Street Brewpub for another night of no disappointment.  Loved the service, loved the food (I had the wings which were quite amazing) and the beers were as always…tasty!

We then headed to the Bronson Center.  We originally found some seats near the back on the floor but then thought we should grab some seats upstairs.  I was unsure of whether or not going upstairs would be a better situation, and as it turns out, I’m thinking…not?  We ended up sitting for the entire rocking event, it was hot in the joint, and at one point, it’s just nice to be able to stand up and stretch!

Iconoclast from Ottawa opened up for them.  Nothing much to say.  They got the energy going!  But not enough for me to pick up their free CD.

Theory of a Deadman took to the stage with some tunes from their new album and by the second song there was some good crowd interaction where they had a decibel meter trying to see if the left or right side of the Center was the better.

They had a great stage presence (as always), apologized for not making Bluesfest last year, and also had an acoustic set which they introduced as their MTV Unplugged portion of the show and then mentioned it was 20 years ago that MTV Unplugged played.  They also teased some excellent tunes like Nutshell by Alice in Chains and Paradise City!

It was a good mix of songs from all their albums.  My only complaint would be that Tyler just couldn’t hit the high notes and they only played a 90 minute set.  With four albums under your belt and 10 years together, you would think you could stretch it out to a proper two hours!  But that’s all nitpicking…it was a great show.  Too bad it had to be at the Bronson Center. 😉  I have no realized that I don’t mind the Bronson Center if it’s a low key performer (like Dan Mangan) where I can sit and enjoy the music.

The only thing I can say about Theory is that I’m starting to fall out of love with them…they had some excellent albums in the past, but for the last two albums, I find I’m losing interest in the rock which caters to saying how much your girlfriend drives you nuts, or songs about fighting with your girlfriend.  There’s definitely a crowd who enjoys that type of music, but I’m not one of them.

Setlist:
Gentlemen
Got It Made
All Or Nothing
So Happy
Bitch Came Back
Nothing Could Come Between Us (too bad we didn’t hear Invisible Man that night!)
Not Meant To Be
The Truth Is…(I Lied About Everything)
Easy To Love You (acoustic)
Out of My Head (acoustic)
Better Off (acoustic)
Lowlife
Santa Monica (with Nutshell intro – I was trying to text Mike but then I realized they weren’t going to play the actual song)
Cocaine [Cale]
Hate My Life
Hurricane
Paradise City [GNR] [snippet]
Bad Girlfriend

Opening Band

The Besnard Lakes

Vero and I descended into Montreal on Wednesday for Pearl Jam!  Traffic was touch and go once we hit the 15, but the excitement in the air was intoxicating.  We arrived at the Best Western which turned out to be a great call on my part as it was just down the street from the Bell Center!

I convinced Vero (let’s be honest, she didn’t need much convincing!) to head down to the Bell Center to pick up our tickets and maybe grab a poster.  Luckily for us, they had a merchandise booth outside of the venue which was PERFECT for me to buy a poster and drop it off at the hotel.  I ended up picking up a poster and a great t-shirt which looks like an old Molson Canadian beer label on the front.  I was really digging this year’s merchandise (compared to the awful t-shirt I got from Toronto 2009).

Ten Club tickets were picked up and while I didn’t win the lottery for better seats, I couldn’t complain about the seats we had.  Section 113, Row DD which was pretty well 17 rows away from the stage.  FANTASTIC!  Thanks Ten Club!

When we walked into see Mudhoney, it was LOUD.  I’m talking Grady loud.  I could see Vero was in discomfort so we seeked out some earplugs from the customer service desk after their set.  I can’t say I know Mudhoney all that much, but for the last few songs that we heard, I was entertained.

Pearl Jam took the stage around 8:50 and started off with a surprising opener…Elderly Woman…but the crowd ate it up.  The Montreal crowd ROARED as soon as they hit the stage.  It was incredible.  This is why I love coming to Montreal for a show.

The hits came coming…Last Exit, Hail, Hail (first time I saw my favourite song live!).  I was surprised to hear Setting Forth with the full band complement as it’s a Eddie solo number.  Eddie said we should thank Matt Cameron for that.

The crowd never let up and the band felt it.  It was going to be a great night!  Our section was great…dancing, cheering, singing along.  I couldn’t have asked for anything less.

My personal highlight was hearing Hail, Hail as well as Come Back…a great, great song.  It was good to hear Sleight of Hand even though Eddie flubbed the second verse.  I was thinking the band was going to stop the song at one point!  I can’t figure out if Black was more powerful in Montreal or in Ottawa 2005…the crowd was intense.

Eddie spoke quite a bit about how great our country is, and how he loved how he could use the same plugs for his electronics.  He also pulled out a horoscope which said something to the effect that in order to keep yourself happy today, surround yourself with a large group and sing with them.

Crazy Mary had Boom and Mike trading off solos and I was glad to hear Yellow Ledbetter as it’s always the ultimate closer for me.

Seeing a Pearl Jam show is an intense experience and we left feeling wasted.  We gave it our all, and the band gave it their all.  This may have been my favourite PJ show I’ve been to.  Time will tell though.  I plan to go to at least one show a year.

Setlist:

•    Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
•    Last Exit
•    Hail, Hail
•    The Fixer
•    Amongst The Waves
•    Severed Hand
•    Setting Forth
•    Corduroy
•    Given To Fly
•    Insignificance
•    Daughter / Blitzkrieg Bop
•    Glorified G
•    1/2 Full
•    Do The Evolution
•    Unthought Known
•    Why Go
Encore 1
•    Even Flow
•    Come Back
•    Sleight Of Hand
•    Down
•    Black
•    Arms Aloft
•    Lukin
•    Porch
Encore 2
•    Better Man
•    Crazy Mary
•    Alive
•    Yellow Ledbetter

If U2 are the kings of spectacle, Sir Paul McCartney is the king of performance.  I can truly say that if I never saw another concert, I would still be a happy man.

Words can’t define what I felt watching him perform the songs I love.  69 years old, 3 hours long, energy equivalent to me.  Outstanding.

Setlist:

1.Hello Goodbye
2.Juniors Farm
3.All My Loving
4.Jet
5.Birthday
6.Sing The Changes
7.The Night Before
8.Let Me Roll It
9.Paperback Writer
10.The Long and Winding Road
11.1985
12.Let ‘Em In
13.Maybe I’m Amazed
14.I’m Looking Through You
15.I Will
16.Blackbird
17.Here Today
18.Dance Tonight
19.Mrs. Vandebilt
20.Eleanor Rigby
21.Michelle
22.Something
23.Band On The Run
24.Ob La Di Ob La Da
25.Back In The USSR
26.I’ve Got A Feeling
27.A Day In The Life/Give Peace A Chance
28.Let It Be
29.Live and Let Die
30.Hey Jude

Encore
31.Lady Madonna
32.Day Tripper
33.Get Back

Second Encore
34.Yesterday
35.Helter Skelter
36.Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End

(photos accumulated from a variety of sources…Ottawa Citizen, Flickr, etc.)

I figured I should fast-forward to story of interest right now, instead of catching up on reviews from the past week.  If you didn’t know already, the main stage at Bluesfest collapsed last night while battling against a massive windstorm.

My story starts out by heading down to the fairgrounds for the final day of Bluesfest.  As always, I’m sad to see it go, but happy to see it go at the same time.  I had a hard time with the Gauntlet this year…I caught a cold mid-way through and those late nights did not help much!

I’m heading down later than I wanted to arrive, but at least I let Trish know that she should go without me because I knew she wanted to get there in time for Cheap Trick.  As I’m walking down Booth Street, I can see this shadow which can only be described as Sauron descending from Mordor (or the Gatineau Hills…take your pick).  It was the most ominous cloud I had ever seen.  I had a few choices ahead of me…do I hightail it back to the car?  Do I go forward and take shelter along the way?  I spied the situation…I was at Lebreton Flats and I could easily stay inside a bus shelter.  But how much shelter would that REALLY provide me?  So I decided to enter no-man’s land…a kilometer of no shelter between Lebreton bus shelters and the War Museum.  Along the way I was texting Trish telling her that she better get out of there…something big was coming.  I wasn’t even going to bother entering the fairgrounds.  I knew lightning (or something worse!) was on its way down and my only safety net was the War Museum lobby.

When I arrived in front of the museum, I figured I would sit and listen to the music until the rain started.

Then the unthinkable happened.

A gust of wind essentially swooped into the stage area and pushed out the roof.  The roof was flapping in the wind and at one point I guess the structure said “Hey wait a minute, the roof is attached to the entire lighting and tarpauline structure…I’m going to go along with it!  So then the entire thing collapsed in one fell swoop.

Here is a video taken from basically where I was standing outside the gate.  Note that from the video, you can’t really tell if it hits the crowd.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvjHZNKwMp4

Here is a better video of the entire thing collapsing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfqpXNfywT4

So at this moment I go into panic mode.  “Where is Trish?  Is she alright?  Are there other of my friends out there?”  I think “Do I go in and look for Trish?” but then the swarms of thousands of people made me realize it was a fool’s errand and I headed into the museum to take shelter from the storm.  Interestingly enough, I had not one drop of rain on me.  Yes, I consider myself quite smart for hanging out near the museum instead of going inside what can only be described as “Windmageddon ’11”.

Inside the war museum I saw my buddy Wes who was in the beer tent right next to the main stage and figured he owed his life to the fact that the wind had knocked the entire structure backwards and not sideways into the beer tent.  I frantically started texting my friends and found out that Mike, Rachel, Andre and Karilee were all offsite at the time which was great news.  My favourite text from Andre is “heading down now.  Looks like poncho time!!!” not realizing the extent of the storm clouds!  Texts slowly trickled in…here’s some news for new cellular phone owners…with thousands of people using their phones in the same area, sometimes nothing works for you.  Trish finally found me and recounted the harrowing tale.

Essentially Cheap Trick was finishing up a song and then all of a sudden left the stage.  They must have seen the storm wind coming.  Two seconds later Trish is caught up in a windstorm so fierce that when I see her, there is dirt in all her clothes and hair!  She then said the stage collapsed before her eyes and she hightailed it out of there looking for shelter.  There were fears of other structures falling down…namely the videographer scaffolds (turns out the Mayor Jim Watson was up on the scaffold at the time!) and the speaker stacks.  She made the smart move by entering the museum from the North side where all the people weren’t heading towards and eventually found me and told me the tale.

It was storming pretty bad for awhile we stuck around for an hour after texting our friends to let them know that Bluesfest was effectively cancelled and there was no use in coming down.  I was quite scared that there may be fatalities but it sounds like a few people ended up in the hospital and are out of the hospital 12 hours later.  Whew!

Trish and I managed to share a poncho (sweet!) and walked back to our cars (where I managed to get soaked feet while avoiding every puddle…damn you Pumas!) and along the way Trish swerved out of the way of something and then I realized there was a tree in the middle of the road!  In fact, there were three along the way and I’m sure a dozen more in the downtown core.

I recommend reading the articles up on the Ottawa Citizen for more information on the crazy, crazy end of Bluesfest.  I’m just glad that no one was killed and I commend the staff on site that maintained order and informed us (well those of us inside of the museum) of what was going on.