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.