Category: Concert Reviews

 

Well this is it. The final day of Bluesfest. It’s been a long ride…one that I took four days off from. I must admit that I was a little disappointed to sell off my Saturday ticket. I was expecting to spend the evening with Vero for the first time without guests in the house…but then she had to go to a Bachelorette party! Serves me right for spending all week long at Mike’s place and not remember this fact! So I stayed in on Saturday night wondering what kind of fun I was missing out on.

On the final night of Bluesfest, we headed over to Krista and Ben’s place for some BBQ and then hightailed it back down for the final time and headed to the Mill Street main brew tent to try out their Stout. It was a decent stout as all products of Mill Street are. In fact, I highly recommend you trying out the Extra Special Bitter which was my fave of the festival. However, the Lemon Tea was good as well, but I couldn’t handle the sugary taste all night long.

The Lost Fingers took the Subway stage a little late and the crowd was pretty sparse…I’m not sure if it was due to the Jimmy Cliff show happening at the other stage or not. Either way, I was loving the extra space and I was loving the Lost Fingers. They are a French group who appear on stage with acoustic guitars, a stand-up bass and purple suits. Perfect! They have a knack of re-envisioning old classics in a way that hasn’t been heard in awhile…I really enjoyed their AC/DC medley and was hoping to catch them play their excellent rendition of Pump Up the Jam. They mix up both French and English tunes which was a welcome change. I give the band two thumbs up for their fun nature!

We then headed to ‘the spot’ for Weezer. I am glad we left when we did because it didn’t take long for the crowd to pile up behind us. We found Vero munching on a poutine with ketchup (gak!) and settled in for the ride.

I will admit that when I heard that Weezer was playing, the thoughts that ran through my head were “Cool. I like Weezer. I love the Blue Album and it should be a decent show.” But I wasn’t prepared for the feeling that arose within me as they started playing.

Weezer is a powerhouse of a band on stage and I couldn’t get over the full-on rock show they can deliver. Rivers Cuomo was all over the stage, waving his hands around and geeking out. I just assumed that he would be playing guitar for the most part, but that didn’t happen that much at all! He was stage left, stage right, in behind the stage, walking into the crowd, walking to the sound booth, climbing the lighting rigs…that guy moved! I especially loved the trampoline in front of the raised drum kit so that he can get up there in one superhero-like bound. Fan-freaking-tastic!

The tunes, OH the tunes they played. I swear they played the majority of the Blue Album. In fact, I will let it be known that as soon as Surf Wax America came on, the following events occurred:
– visions of me pretending to surf to this song in Vero’s living room
– visions of me pretending to surf in my parents living room while listening to some old ‘surf tunes’ LP that I would put on before the bus would show up in the morning. I’m sure Maureen has seen me fake-surf in the living room back in the day.
– Palmer circa 1995 rammed into my soul. I had the energy of a 17 year old and started bopping around. I don’t know where it came from me but it was the most amazing feeling in the world. I wanted to rush the stage and jump around with all my cohorts in crime. It was fabulous.
– My friends in behind me must have thought I went insane. It never let up. The entire show was like that. Fist-pumping, song chanting, just these waves of alternative 90s rock waving over me.

In the end, it was my favourite show of Bluesfest. It hit me totally unexpected…I never knew how much I loved Weezer until this moment. They put on a fabulous, fabulous show. They even covered some MGMT and Lady Gaga in the end which was great. Rivers is quite the showman. He’s talking to the crowd, he’s interacting with them, he’s jumping into garbage cans…there was just hilarity going on at all moments.

Sigh…I miss that show already. It was a fantastic, fantastic show and it brought the good concert-going feeling in me. I can’t believe the Ottawa Citizen didn’t even write a review about the show in the paper the next day. They opted for a ‘Bluesfest Review’ (which was an excellent write-up), but come on! One of the best ‘fest shows doesn’t even get a write-up?

It doesn’t matter. Weezer won best Bluesfest show for me. Hands down. Well done gentlemen, well done.

Bluesfest is becoming a blur considering it’s been a week later when I’m writing up this review. I can’t remember vivid details leading up to the event, but let me tell you about my typical day during Bluesfest 2010.

I wake up at 6:30, grab a shower at Mike’s place and then head out the door. I enjoy the most amazing walk of my life…30 minutes in a sunny Ottawa across the bridge where I tip my hat to Parliament and then head into the office. I must admit that my ankle is really bugging me lately…it started back in May and it comes and goes. I assume that it’s coming to haunt me because of Bluesfest…standing around for four hours a night can’t be too good on the feet! My day at work is starting to become a haze…people are giving me the look of “Dude, have you been up all night?”. Most definitely not! Mike and I have adopted a responsible evening process to Bluesfest. Arrive home from work, have a few beer and dinner leading up to the main event, walk down to the event, grab a few more beer throughout the night, rock out, return home, have approximately three glasses of water while chatting it up to unwind and hit the sack. Generally we get to bed around 12-12:30. Considering we are waking up around 6:30, you can see how this takes its toll after awhile!

But I must say that I really appreciate Mike and Dave putting me up for the week and the fact that I have the most amazing walk to work in the morning. If people can walk to work in 30-45 minutes, I say do it! Your life will be better for it!

So that being said, I’m sure that we had a few drinks and then headed to see Steve Winwood as Trish wanted to see him. We found out later that the sole reason she wanted to see him was because he played with Eric Clapton at one point! Oh Trish! Your love for Clapton knows no bounds.

We knew it was going to be a crazy night at the fairgrounds considering it was hell just to even enter the grounds! There were tons, tons, tons of people…it was quite reminiscent of the KISS concert. In fact, looking at numbers, KISS had 30,000 people attend their show. The Ottawa Citizen reports an estimated 35,000 for Santana! I also heard that the festival organizers announced that those with lawn chairs had to stand up and fold them up which, if I heard that in person, would have applauded them for the two hour concert. Genius idea!

Steve Winwood had a great band and I recognized some tunes of his which was nice. The band was a good one and I think they really got great near the end of their set. When they finally left the stage we looked around and realized that it wasn’t going to be easy to get ANYWHERE. We were at the Claridge Stage on the left side and there was already a crowd back there. Not good. Doubly not good as we needed to get to Vero was coming later and said she would try and be at ‘the spot’ or near it. Gah.

We followed the crowd to the washrooms and re-evaluated. We were back by the food tents and there was no moving us. What to do?

Mike won the much coveted prize of ‘best pathfinder ever’ and he realized that it’s always easier to move away from the crowd and find the path of least resistance. Sure enough, we walked away from the crowd towards the sound cable fencing around the Claridge stage, followed an easy trail to get us to the beer tents. GREAT SUCCESS! Trish and I were doubly impressed with Mike. We then found the Amnesty International tent with Aaron waiting near the fence. The crowd was insane so it was nice to find a spot where we could call our own and have some space for once.

After a few songs, I decided to try and find Vero. In this crowd, I knew it was virtually impossible, but I could not live with myself without trying to find my love! So I started out slow…that’s the only way to get through the crowd…patience. But then the golden path emerged in the form of a person in a wheelchair ahead of me. While I took advantage of his mastery of creating a path, I also helped him out when he stopped near the beer tent and directed traffic around him. I must admit that seeing what a person in a wheelchair has to deal with while at Bluesfest made me realize that there should be a wheelchair zone dedicated to them. Countless time I thought someone was going to rush from behind and fall over the guy if it weren’t for myself and a few others protecting him.

Anyhow, I couldn’t find Vero so I stayed for a few songs..one of them being an excellent version of Maria Maria and some extended drum solo which came fairly early in the set. The crowd around me was inspiring. Dancing was happening all around me…we’re not talking rock concert dancing…we’re talking Latino Dancing at its finest point!!! I was having a really great time and the crowd was having a really great time as well. KISS was nothing like this with people pinching and punching their way through…this was a concert of love and I was feeling the mood.

When I finished my beer, I did what any good friend would do, pick up a Lemon Tea Beer for Mike and bring it back to him. He was quite happy. I then realized that Aaron had gone off somewhere so I convinced Trish and Mike that it was our duty to go into the crowd and have some fun. I wanted them to feel what I felt being in the crowd of Santana fans. Santana took to the stage and talked about love and spirituality and it was a poignant moment because I knew that we would find Vero somehow. We navigated the crowd back to the beer tent for a bit and then I figured we had nothing to lose by trying to get up to ‘the spot’ to see if Vero was there. Surprisingly, the crowd seemed a little easier to navigate the closer we got to the spot. We stopped a few times along the way but then an opening happened and we took it and before you knew it, we were at the spot! Then we found Vero fifteen minutes before the end of the concert! I called it a magical moment! It was amazing, to find the one you’ve been searching for, listening to some soaring guitar work by Mr. Carlos Santana along with this amazing band. This night was definitely in my Top Three of Bluesfest. The mood and music were infectious and everyone had a great time.

*Update* I cannot believe I forgot that Lou Diamond Philips was part of the band! He was on percussion and it was fantastic to see him on stage! I can’t believe we didn’t even realize until the end when they announced him. This begs a few questions…has he always been in the band? Was this a one-off? Why was this not talked about more? Does anyone even remember Lou Diamond Philips?! Mike and I downloaded Young Guns I & II that night and he got blazing fast speeds of 1MB/sec! At one moment I didn’t know if we were more excited by that or the fact that we saw Santana!

Night 2 of 2 for OLP in Ottawa. I picked up Mike and we headed to the theater with high hopes as we were sitting in the direct middle of the theater this time around which would make for a better viewing/listening experience compared to hugging the right wall from the night before.

Spiritual Machines is a killer album and it turned out to be a better album than Clumsy; in terms of a live setting. It was full out rock and was quite amazing to see live.

The crowd was into it from the get-go and half the theater was standing for the first set. This was an excellent night to come see the show and I’m disappointed I convinced Vero to come to the Clumsy night.

The stage was pretty sparse for the first set but the energy coming from the stage made up for it. The band was in top shape and Mike and I were loving our center-stage viewing positions.

The most amazing part was the guitar work by Steve Mazur. He was all over the place. At one point I thought he was part guitar player, part tap dancer as he navigated his effects board. I loved how The Wonderful Future was described as ‘something that was never meant to be played live’ and he nailed it! All in all, Spiritual Machines was great.

We met a couple next to us who was interested in what happened the night before and we chatted with them during intermission. They were quite nice and Mike and I decreed them as our ‘rock neighbours’…good people there for a good time, with a lot of knowledge about the band. We told them what we had experienced in the second set the night before and expressed our hopes that it wouldn’t be the same set.

Unfortunately for us, it was the same exact set, except that the three Spiritual Machines tracks from the night before were substituted for Clumsy tracks. Also, Naveed was dropped but Starseed was played. That was a welcome closing song.

However, I can’t complain at all for seeing an awesome band do what they do best, even if I did see them the night before. The Clumsy songs came off amazing compared to the night before…the classic sing-along to Superman’s Dead and 4AM occurred whereas they were non-existent the night before.

4AM was a big highlight as Raine decided to throw the house lights on and stand out in the middle of the theater amongst the fans…this was not a good time for Mike and I to forget our cameras as he was two rows behind us. It was quite a cool moment although I enjoyed his run up to the upper balcony the night before more.

All in all, Night 2 killed Night 1 for the overall experience…Spiritual Machines is definitely the better album to listen to live and the crowd was into the entire night. However, I can’t forget that there was the amazing feeling of being in the trenches for the first set of Clumsy and then the triumphant return to grace for the second set. That was a powerful moment.

An Evening with Our Lady Peace turned out to be a great couple of nights and I’m glad that we still have the opportunity to see a favourite band in a setting like this.

Last night, Mike, Vero and I went to Centerpointe Theater to see An Evening with Our Lady Peace; a show where they would play the entire Clumsy album and then a selection of hits. Followed by Night 2 where they would play the entire Spiritual Machines album, followed by a selection of their hits.

We had some decent seats…Row B in the Orchestra, hugging the right wall. This cut off some view of the stage for me, but not enough to matter. However, we were super close to the PA stacks and I believe the bass line from Duncan may have given me a new hairstyle!

The show started off with a classic Clumsy video (which opened up all their Clumsy arena shows) with the old man reciting some poetry. The band came out and ripped into Superman’s Dead and it was all good.

However, I must admit that something was off. At first I thought it was the crowd…Ottawa crowds tend to disappoint me and disappoint me they did. No one stood up in their seats. This is an interesting quandary that people deal with when in a ‘theater’ setting. Do I stand up? Do I rock out? Or am I supposed to sit here and enjoy the music?

So we sat there and enjoyed the music. But it was just weird. No cheering during the songs, no singing along to 4AM, which arguably hasn’t been sung by Raine Maida in years considering it’s usually THE sing-along song for the audience.

I then started to notice the band…and I noticed that Raine definitely was having trouble with his voice. Some of the falsettos weren’t coming through and at one point he was on the megaphone and we stood there wondering where the heck the vocals were. I have no idea if it was user interruption or if we were in a dead spot due to the PA (as Mike theorized).

The stage lighting was also quite minimal and I thought that perhaps this is what the band is going for in this ‘Evening with OLP’. Perhaps they want to have people sit down.

The climax of the set, Car Crash, didn’t pay off in the end as the wails from Raine just didn’t happen. Everyone remained sitting down for the entire show. It was brutal. It was like the band were playing for a bunch of record executives who are deeming if their material is worthy or not.

We left the theater, picked up some excellent posters and a t-shirt and headed to the car where I laid my feelings out to Mike and Vero. I thought the show was brutal. The audience was horrible…it was just an awkward event. They agreed that something was definitely off. Vero thought that perhaps this was the ‘more intimate’ vibe they were going for.

We walked back into the theater hoping for the best. At the very least, I thought that not knowing what song would come up next would be the clincher that would win over the crowd. It is definitely not surprising to know exactly what song is coming up next.

When we got back into the theater, I heard the two guys behind me chatting about the same feelings I had. We chatted about it and Josh was upset that no one was standing up and giving it their all for the band. He decided to take matters into his own hands and got up and cheered for everyone to stand up. He had a great time attracting attention and I felt this would change things. Even before the band showed up again after intermission you could start to feel the electricity in the air. This was a crowd that felt like they had let down their band in the first set and they were going to give it their all in the second set.

The second set starts and everyone is on their feet before the band hits the stage. Josh is running around getting everyone to stand up and cheer. It was a great, redeeming moment in the night…we weren’t alone in feeling that the first set felt out of place. The band came out in full force and opened with Monkeybrains and the power from the crowd and the power from the band was equal and all was good in the world. The smoke show and light show had started up and this was a full on rock show!

I personally felt amazed at how the crowd had taken a 180 degree turn and came back to be one of the best crowds I have ever witnessed. The band were really into it (as they should be!) and they were loving the vibe. The theatrics of Raine Maida came out in his songs, while Jeremy, Duncan and Steve took the charge in giving it their all on their instruments.

At one point, Raine talks about how the first set felt with everyone sitting down while they played…he paused to figure out how to describe the emotion and someone yelled out ‘awkward’ and he agreed wholeheartedly. It was quite the moment for the crowd and the band to be on the same level, and then realize that they have to work together to bring this show to what it *should* be. Raine also put a shout out to Josh who was leading the charge. I enjoyed how he told him to ‘control himself’ but said he was just joking. But then during Naveed he was singing some song with the lyrics ‘control yourself’ and I thought that was a neat link.

The rest of the show was stellar. They had everything a fan would want…some greatest hits, some obscure tracks, some tracks from Spiritual Machines (from tomorrow’s set)…it had everything I wanted to hear.

Some of the highlights (other than hearing the Clumsy album…that was neat, but considering the crowd wasn’t into it, I don’t have good memories about the time other than the fact of seeing some songs that I’ve never seen live was pretty darn cool) included:
One Man Army – One of my fave live tracks as Raine goes spastic with his military walks and whatnot.
Naveed – What a booming bass line to get everyone going. That song can play for hours and I would still love it.
All you Did Was Save My Life – Near the end of the song, Raine down the aisle and appeared up in the balcony seats to get everyone standing up! I had a good laugh when he noticed some kid still sat down and he said “What the hell man? What are you…fifteen? Are you lazy or something?” He sang the rest of the song up in the balcony and it was amazing.
If You Believe – An AMAZING take on a great Spiritual Machines track. I have never seen this live and it was really great.

At one point, Jeremy threw out a drum stick and it ended up between two seats and no one saw it. Mike pointed it out to Josh’s friend who nabbed it and handed it to Josh at one point. I thought this was sweet justice for the guy who led the charge for the night.

All in all, I was very impressed with the night. It started out awkward and had me thinking evil thoughts about Ottawa crowds, but the redemption of the night put some faith in me. Music is the common element between all of us in the crowd and we should embrace that. Embrace it we did.

Night 2 will have Mike and I attending and I hope that we don’t have a repeat performance of people sitting down!

Setlist

Blood on Blood
We Weren’t Born to Follow
You Give Love a Bad Name
Whole Lot of Leavin’
Born to Be My Baby
Lost Highway
Have a Nice Day
Thorn in My Side
When We Were Beautiful
Superman Tonight
We Got It Goin’ On
Bad Medicine [with Hot Legs]
It’s My Life
Homebound Train [With Richie Sambora on vocals]
Hallelujah [Leonard Cohen]
I’ll Be There for You
Diamond Ring
Something for the Pain [Acoustic]
Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night [Acoustic]
Keep the Faith
Work for the Working Man
Who Says You Can’t Go Home
Love’s the Only Rule

Runaway
I Love This Town
Wanted Dead or Alive
Livin’ on a Prayer

Twist and Shout [The Top Notes]
Captain Crash & the Beauty Queen From Mars [Tour Debut]

Opening

Volbeat

Lamb of God

Setlist

The Ecstasy of Gold @Tape [Ennio Morriconne]
That Was Just Your Life
The End of the Line
Creeping Death
Fuel
Fade to Black
Broken, Beat & Scarred
Cyanide
Sad but True
One
All Nightmare Long
The Day That Never Comes
Master of Puppets
Battery
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman

Last Caress [Misfits]
Motorbreath
Seek & Destroy

 

My cousin Troy writes in with a review of  what seems to be an excellent Metallica show in Toronto!  I am looking forward to the Ottawa show next week (although I have misplaced my tickets!)

What a show!!! Cousin Rick and I arrived downtown with enough time to spare to grab a quick submarine sandwich in Union Station . We then got in the “Metallica Clubbers” line outside the Air Canada Centre which allowed us to enter the venue 30 minutes prior to the rest of the fans being admitted (Membership has it’s privileges being a member of the Metallica Fan Club!). Rick said he felt like we were VIP’s as we were escorted through a fancy area where we could partake of some beverages then out on to the floor. We were mighty thirsty, but we thought better of guzzling beer as we knew we would be standing for a long time to secure our spots for the duration of the show. Going to the bathroom would have resulted in us losing our spots, so it was out of the question. In hindsight it was the right choice as we were standing there for over six hours.
The stage set up for the gig, known as “In The Round” was a large oval stage located in the centre of the arena as opposed to being on an end. Fans are able to encircle the stage from all sides, while the band members constantly move around to interact with the fans. Once out on the floor we managed to get a spot dead centre pretty much right on the rail. There was only one person in front of us. Rick and I couldn’t believe how close we were to the stage, literally an arms length away. This was shaping up to be one hell of a musical experience! It was quite odd to be down “on the ice” of the ACC with most of the arena empty of people. Looking around from ice level you really get a feel for how big the ACC really is. Soon enough, the rest of the crazy concert goers started to pour in, and you could feel a sense of anticipation and excitement in the air.

Opening the show was a band called Volbeat from Denmark. I have never had the chance to listen to any of their material, but their music sounded pretty good. Apparently it was their first night on the tour, so I’m sure they were quite excited and nervous to be there. The crowd response was fairly luke warm….the arena was only half full at that time and most of the concert goers weren’t really into them. It must be tough opening for Metallica. I don’t have anything bad to say about Volbeat, but then again they didn’t really excite me.

Next up…….metal juggernauts Lamb of God. I was expecting the energy to be ramped up once they took the stage and I wasn’t disappointed. The guttural vocals of the lead singer, matched with the fury of the dual guitar attack and the thundering bass and drums whipped some fans into a fury. The difference was like night and day between Volbeat and Lamb of God. Though I did notice that some fans were still fairly reserved. It didn’t take long for a mosh pit to start to the left side of Rick. I didn’t notice it was occurring until Rick was shoved into me. When I turned my head to look there was a mass of approximately 20 or so people slamming into each other with fists, elbows and bodies. The look on Rick’s face was priceless as I believe he thought he was in for some punishment. He asked me if I “had his back” and I said I would step in if needed. I did move my large carcass in their direction with the expectation of keeping them at bay, and managed to shove a few guys away before they moved on to another area of the floor. All in all Lamb of God delivered their brutal form of metal to the delight of many fans, and in the process raised the energy level up for Metallica to take the stage.

Some observations that may interest only me:

• An unusual amount of towels and bottles of water brought out by the roadies and distributed at various spots of the stage prior to Lamb of God performing. My initial thought was either they are really thirsty, or we are going to get wet. It turns out the singer has a habit of dumping bottles of water on his head then flailing his great mane of hair around causing water to spray in every direction.
• Security guy standing with his back to the stage between us and the stage getting soaked with water by Lamb of God singer as he whipped his head around. The security guy didn’t look impressed. I believe the singer was doing it on purpose. He would pour a bottle of water over his head, walk right up to the edge directly behind the security guy then let loose. Poor bastard must have endured the shower at least 6 or more different times.
• Interesting interaction between lead guitarist Mark Morton and his guitar tech who was standing to my right in the gap between stage and fans. After every song the guitar tech would hold up a bottle of water in one hand and a red plastic cup filled with what I believe to be beer in the other. Mark Morton would walk over and 9 times out of ten take a pull off of the red cup.
• During a guitar solo, Mark Morton having a conversation with his guitar tech that looked like it was entertaining as they were both talking and laughing. Two things that strike me odd about this is: a) Mark was performing the intricate solo while looking at his guitar tech, not the guitar. b) How the hell could they hear each other? I was less then four feet away and the music was bloody loud. I could barely hear Rick standing right next to me.
• Rick commenting that the bass player looks like Papa Smurf……..he actually does!
• Guitarist Mark Morton making fun of a girl who was paying no attention to the band or their music. Obviously the poor girl was brought to the show by her boyfriend and she clearly wasn’t enjoying it (kind of reminds me of taking Connie to see Rush – bad idea). Mark finally got her attention and pretended he was yawning. He walked to the edge of the stage where she was and mouthed/yelled out “it’s alright, we only have two more songs left before we’re done”. It was pretty funny….and she was embarrassed.
• Rick snagging a drum stick from the Lamb of God drummer as it was thrown into the crowd. I have no idea how he did it as there must have been 20 or so hands all trying to do the same thing.
• Young guy to my right, with wonder in his eyes saying “Dude…that’s awesome! You guys deserve that drum stick as you’re the only ones rockin’ out to the music.” Priceless.
• A strong scent of marijuana wafting around us. We couldn’t figure out where it was coming from but it sure was strong and we were having a hard time breathing at times. A short time later Rick discovered a couple of young guys standing directly behind me were the culprits. They were using me as a shield from the security people by bending down behind me to spark ’em up. No wonder Rick and I were getting smoked out.
• Lamb of God singer encouraging people to get mosh pits going and body surf…only those that did were physically removed and tossed out by security. I guess for some fans it’s worth it to miss the headling act for some casual violence.

Finally, the headliner Metallica……the band we were all there to see. The house lights darkened, and the instrumental Ecstasy of Gold that Metallica has opened every show with for over two decades began to ring out. The fans erupted with an ear shattering cheer. When Metallica took the stage I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I had been following this band religiously since 1983, when as a young teenager I obtained a copy of a tape through a friend. I have seen Metallica live eight or nine times and by far this was the best. Being that close made the interaction with the band simply incredible. Rick was floored by the energy the band was putting out, and the fans were sending it right back at the band. It’s really hard to put it all into words, it must be experienced. The fans were incredibly loud from the get go…so much so that James Hetfield stopped singing and was shaking his head in disbelief at how loud the crowd was after the second song. Throughout the show he kept making comments about the decibel level of the crowd. James Hetfield – singer/writer/rhythm guitarist extraordinaire was in prime form. His vocals never sounded better. Lars Ulrich on drums appeared to be having a great time. Interacting with the fans every chance he could get. Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett had many moments to shine as he shredded his way through his guitar solos while smiling the whole time. Robert Trujillo on bass crept around the stage and was an anchor of the rhythm section. It was apparent the guys were having a good time. They could all be seen grinning from ear to ear, especially when the crowd took over the vocals that were loud enough to shake the walls of the ACC. All of the band members made a point to move around to each area of the stage, but Rick and I both agreed they tended to spend a lot of time right in front of us. I was fortunate enough to lock eyes with each member of the band on many occasions and got a response from each one when I would express my excitement. The band played a fairly tight set…..there were a couple of times when they got off tempo, but they recovered quickly with no dip in enthusiasm by the crowd. The set list was pretty good that included six songs off of the new Death Magnetic album. With a catalogue of music as large as theirs, they can’t obviously play everyone’s favorite songs.

Set list:

That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Ride The Lightning
The Memory Remains
Fade To Black
Broken, Beat And Scarred
Cyanide
Sad But True
One
All Nightmare Long
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Fight Fire With Fire
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
– – – – – – – –
Stone Cold Crazy
Whiplash
Seek and Destroy

Some observations that may interest only me:

• The wives and kids of the band members being escorted past us to find a seat within the barricade just prior to the lights going down.
• One of the Metallica kids wearing pink headphone/ear protection gear wandering on to the stage just before the show was supposed to start, and gently being coaxed off of it.
• James Hetfield has enormous stage presence.
• During the song The Memory Remains, the crowd continued to sing long after the band stopped playing. The band members looked at each other and shook their heads in disbelief at the duration and how loud the crowd was.
• The heat from the flames was intense when the pyro for the song One went off.
• Lars Ulrich came right over to us a number of times and one time made like a fountain as he sprayed my hand with some juice he was drinking from a cup. Sticky for the rest of the night.
• Robert Trujillo posing for a picture I was taking with my cell phone while still trying to thrash away to a song.
• There are some great custom paint jobs on Kirk Hammetts guitars. I could see all of the detail clearly.
• Great to see all of the guys playing their respective instruments. As a fellow musician I could finally see how they actually play those tunes, and see if I have been doing it right all these years.
• I was lucky enough to grab one of the large black Metallica beach balls that dropped from the ceiling at the end of the concert. A number of people tried to grab it from me but I somehow laid the Vulcan Death Grip on it and wasn’t letting go of it to save my life (thank god for strong guitar player fingers). I held on to it with one hand and fought off any challengers with the other.
• Rick and I also managed to get a guitar pick each from Metallica. One side shows a graphic of a monster, the other has “Metallica Sux ’09 Canada” printed on it.
• All in all Metallica put on one hell of a show. We had a great time other than I partially dislocated my right shoulder at the end of the show by reaching down to grab a guitar pick. I believe I hyper extended it. After almost passing out from the pain, I popped it back in and with Rick’s help was back to good in no time. Shoulder is a bit sore now, but I’m no worse for wear. By the end of the concert we were “Broken, Beat, & Scarred” to quote a Metallica song title. Dehydrated, worn out, and sore from six plus hours of standing and rocking out.

We finished off the night by hitting the pub for a few beers and some grub.
What a night!!!

All photos were taken from http://www.rebelreviewer.com/metallica.htm without any permission. If you are the owner and want them removed, by all means, get in touch with me!

Last Wednesday, Mike and I went to see Silversun Pickups, Cage the Elephant and An Horse at the Civic Center. Unbeknownst to us, this was a non-beer event which made it quite lackluster once we arrived after a chilling 45 minute walk to discover there just wasn’t much to drink. Also, it was held in the Exhibition Hall and not the regular hockey arena. Strange! It felt like a school cafeteria.

We caught the last half of An Horse, a duo from Australia who were alright. We then met up with another Mike and his girlfriend Vero and we chatted for awhile until Cage the Elephant came on. Now, the only thing that I know about this band is their hit single ‘Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked’ which is quite the fun tune to play on the guitar. So my expectations were wide open…and they blew me away! Their single does not accurately portray what this band is…I would like to say that there quite a lot of energy on the stage tonight. The singer’s spastic movements on and off stage (quite a few times he jumped off the stage and at the end he did a nice stomach first crowd surf) were the highlight of the next hour. The set list was energetic and good rock and roll. They reminded me a little of Billy Talent for their sheer onslaught of force. We were all quite impressed by their live show.

The highlight of the night (and for me, perhaps the highlight of the past year in concerts) was the Silversun Pickups. Out of LA, two albums and one EP into their career, they are regarded as the next Smashing Pumpkins. Their use of wicked effects pedals earns them that moniker. Heck, they even have Nikki Monninger on bass guitar just like the Pumpkins usually have a woman up there. I loved their Carnavas album and I REALLY love their latest disc Swoon. It’s quite amazing. I haven’t taken it out of the car for the past few months.

That being said, as soon as they took the stage, I knew we were in for a treat when they opened up with my favourite track from the new album -> Growing Old is Getting Old. A moody, somber atmospheric piece that starts out with a good bass line and explodes near the end with everything the band has to offer.

What I really loved about the band in a live setting were the little things that were different…of particular note was the drummer who was not sitting directly facing the lead singer position, but off center facing the bass player’s corner of the stage. Perhaps this was to show off his Dave Grohl like head banging while playing the drums. Heck, he even had this high-hat which was literally seven feet tall…so while the rest of his drum set is at a normal height, he would have to reach and hit the high-hat which was quite entertaining.

Nikki on the bass seemed to have a great time. She would do little hops and had a smile a mile wide the entire concert. Brian Aubert was the main man, handling both guitar and vocal duties. I was quite surprised to see that only one man was responsible for the sonic assault of screaming guitars for the next two hours. I expected them to have another guitarist for their live set. However, it probably helps that they have someone on keyboards dealing with the addition of some atmospheric sounds.

What can I say about this band other than the fact that it felt like a buzz saw was going through me at certain times. They brought the energy to an all-time high and I was impressed with the Ottawa crowd this time around (whereas they usually disappoint me. Perhaps the secret is in the youth.). Heck, a mosh pit even started during Panic Switch.

I can’t really put into words what I felt this night of seeing them…I was very inspired by their live show and I haven’t been this inspired in a LONG time. The last time I was this inspired was probably at the last Pumpkins concert I saw. The light show, the thunder of the drums, the soaring guitar work…everything rolled into an amazing package and I was blown away by them. If you want to see an amazing show, please, please, please do the band and yourself a favour…

Around noon, I was sitting outside Joelle’s house waiting for her to arrive for the grand U2 trip.  She was already prepared when she pulled up in her car including her excellent concert going shoes which increases her height of 5’3″ to 5’8″.  May I also point out that I notice Bono was wearing the same shoes at the show?

We then headed to Barrhaven to pick up Claude, or rather, have him pick us up as we were taking his sweet Mazda6.  We didn’t have time to peruse his new house as we had to hit the road!

I will admit that I had been stressing out over the logistics of the trip….”Will we hit rush hour if we arrive in Toronto around 4:30-5:00?”, “Will we be able to find a decent parking spot?”, “Will we get a decent spot on the General Admission floor area?”, “Will we have time to eat before the show?”.  The entire summer long I had played it cool and then cracks in my mental foundation started appearing and people were having a good chuckle over it.

In the end, we packed some food for the trip down just in case we couldn’t make it with time to spare.  In the same end, we arrived in downtown Toronto around 5PM with no traffic encountered whatsoever and we managed to find a great parking spot (actually, it was the same exact parking spot that I had used when seeing Pearl Jam the month before, which in turn is the parking lot that Dana parks her car in!) and headed to the Rogers Center which was within view of the lot.

Claude had a few tickets to get rid of so he managed to get rid of them at a loss.  We then scoured some merchandise booths to find out where I could get a Toronto specific poster.  The booths said I would have to go inside to do so and I couldn’t exit the building after.  Luckily, I thought ahead of this eventuality and packed a poster tube to carry it in.  However, just before entering the building we spied another merchandise booth that DID carry the Toronto specific posters so Claude and I picked one up and he returned to the car to drop off the tube.  The poster has now replaced my Vertigo tour poster in my living room.  It’s good to switch it up once in awhile.  I actually like this poster a lot better as it doesn’t have Bono in a ridiculous cowboy hat and is four times larger than all the other members.

We then entered the Rogers Center and made our way down to the General Admission area on the baseball field.  The 360 Tour stage (aka The Claw) was quite a marvel.  It was massive!  I have read a few articles about it…costs $40M to create, takes four days to assemble and two days to disassemble.  It consists of a 360 degree big screen so that anyone in the stadium can take a look.  All in all, it looked like a giant spaceship!

We made our way down to the floor and planted ourselves about five meters in front of the front rail.  Joelle was about four meters away as she wanted to be in the best spot possible.  So to explain where we were in terms of the stage…there is a stage.  Then out from the stage is a pit of people.  Let’s say that pit of people is about 15 meters deep.  Then you hit the catwalk which is a ring around the stage.  Well, we were five meters from the catwalk which was great.  So when the band members would come onto the catwalk, we were quite close.  In fact, even with them on stage, I found myself watching the stage more than the big screen as we were close enough.

Krista, Ben and Vince finally found out is in the crowd (they had come up in a separate car).  They had a beer in hand but I had decided that in a moment like this, it’s impossible to move in and out of the crowd to get a beer.  From 6:00 onwards, no drinks or food were to be had in order to maximize our spot.  Claude, unfortunately, had a headache, got some water which led to him leaving for the washroom at one point and he never made it back to us.  There were just too many people.  There were 13,000 people on the floor, 50,000 people in the stands!  We held our ground.

Snow Patrol opened for U2 and they put on a great show.  Krista introduced me to Snow Patrol and I quite enjoy their second album.  They played quite a few tunes from it and the frontman, Gary Lightbody was quite the entertainer while he laid on top of amplifiers or walked around the stage trying to get the crowd into singing along.  They played all their great hits and we were all impressed by their show.  I was quite impressed when the 360 degree big screen turned on and it was quite brilliant and clear.  What a massive screen!

After Snow Patrol left the stage around 8PM, we waited until 9PM to finally hear the opening song Space Oddity (David Bowie) playing over the PA.  This was it!  The crowd was wild at that point.  Many people were trying to get in front of us.  One girl said “Our friend is right in front of you!”  I asked “What’s his name?”.  They replied “John.”.  “John!  JOHN!” I cried to the people in front of us…alas, no one turned around.  Nice try ladies.

The lights descended and it was a beautiful sight.  Let me tell you something that was extra special about this night….the roof on the Rogers Center was open.  In the history of the Rogers Center, they have only done that for one other band…Bruce Springsteen in 2003.  AC/DC couldn’t get permission, Coldplay couldn’t do it either…but when U2 comes to town…Wow!  The sight was amazing…to my right, the CN tower (which I never knew had a light show at night!  Also…someone on the U2 Interference forums indicated that the opening song had their light show synced to the CN Tower, or vice versa.  Nice!)

The band came out in a stage full of lights and smoke.  They all took their place and ripped into Breathe from their new album No Line on the Horizon.  The crowd was loving it.  I coull tell it would be a better night compared to the night before where I heard the crowd was a little mellow.

They played a string of four songs from their new album…I really enjoyed the live version of the song No Line on the Horizon.  Get on Your Boots is also a fun one even though Vero despises it!

Then the hits came…starting out with Mysterious Ways, they level of enthusiasm skyrocketed.  I couldn’t keep my eyes off the entire scene surrounding me…63,000 fans, a beautiful starry night, the CN Tower beside me and U2 in front of me!  Incroyable!

They went through a good selection from all of their albums.  Claude was quite disappointed that they cut Pride (In The Name of Love) from their set (which was quite strange as it’s a staple song from the past two decades.)

Here’s some general comments of the show:
– First time we had ever heard New Year’s Day in concert.
– Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of…acoustic…excellent.  I had a laugh when Bono was chatting away while The Edge got his guitar and mic set up and he finally said “Edge, what’s taking so long?” and it turns out that his ear-speaker hadn’t been working for the last couple of songs so they had to fix it.  Also, at one point, Bono stopped the song and asked the apartment buildings overlooking the Rogers Center to flick their lights on and off if they were watching.  Sure enough, a slew of apartments started flicking their lights on and off!  We loved it, the crowd went wild.  Imagine the view from up there!
– During City of Blinding Lights, Bono pulled up a boy from the pit and ran around with catwalk with him and lent him his glasses for awhile.  It was quite a great moment for that kid.  The newspaper had interviewed Lucas the next day and he was ecstatic!  Turns out that a woman I work with knows the kid’s parents.  Fancy that.
– The remix of I’ll Go Crazy was quite fun and different to hear.  Larry Mullen Jr. walked around the catwalk pounding his jambe drum.
– I should mention that the cooler stage device was the big screen which actually separated to form a large bee-hive cone at various parts in the show!  Also, the band had a couple of bridges linking the main stage to the catwalk.
– Walk On was an interesting ending of the main set.  They had volunteers with cut-out masks of Aung San Suu Kyi fill the catwalk.
– I personally felt that the main set ended on a down note with Walk On.  I think if they would have continued with One and Streets, it would have been killer.  But they left the stage for a few minutes, returned to play One and then played Streets.  Streets usually evokes this powerful energy in the crowd and I didn’t feel it this time around.  Something was missing.  The second encore started out awesome with Ultraviolet and Bono with his coat full of frickin’ lazer beams (!!!), ended with some killer version of With or Without You which had me yanking Joelle back over to our area and then they ended with Moment of Surrender from the new album.

All in all, while the show was quite amazing, I preferred the structure of the set lists from the previous Elevation and Vertigo tours.  The energy was lacking near the end of the show and I think if they cut out one encore and coupled One and Streets into the main set, it would have made a giant difference.  I can’t complain too much though.  It was a really, really great show and I hope that everyone out there reading this gets a chance to see them when they’ll return to North America in 2010.  I will probably go out again.  But we’ll see.

After the concert, it took us awhile to find Claude but we did, and then we headed for home.  Unfortunately for us, our trip was marred with the disaster of construction on the 401 Express Lane.  It was my own fault…I read the sign on the DVP that said “Express Lane closed for Construction.” but when we saw people entering it I said “Let’s take it!  Maybe the sign is wrong!”.  Sure enough, it was not wrong and it took us 45 minutes to crawl two kilometers while we stared at the collector lanes zooming by.

We arrived in Barrhaven around 4:30AM, picked up my car and then headed for Orleans.  5AM I snuck into the house and stayed up for awhile.  I guess my body was trying to compensate for staying up that late and my brain was saying “It’s alright, we don’t need sleep!”.  But as soon as my head hit the pillow, I slept like a baby until 3PM the next day.

Good times were had all around and I think for Vince, Krista and Ben’s first time, it was legendary.  I did manage to get a bootleg of the concert which isn’t half bad and I have a lead on a DVD of the show as well that I may pursue.

Setlist:

Breathe
No Line on the Horizon
Get on Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
Elevation
Still Haven’t Found
Unknown Caller
New Year’s Day
Stuck In A Moment
Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I’ll Go Crazy If I don’t Go Crazy Tonight Remix
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On

Encore:

One
Streets

Encore:

Ultraviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender