12-11-2012, 02:39 PM
Is it the cold that unites us?
Great line from Gordo...I love his socio-political rants! I believe his quote was, "it has to take more than the cold to unite us"
Still one of the greatest bands that is playing incredibly tight and really enjoying themselves. It is fun to be in the room when they start building the songs into their crescendo and we anticipate and then participate by singing and dancing along on the occasions when the music grabs our nerve! The music grabbed me, spoke to me and even shook me a number of times last night.
what an incredible venue...the pictures and posters on the wall is worth getting to a show here early and walking around.
We got there for 7:55 and no line and were whisked in. The crowd then started getting into position around 8:15 and lots of, umm american cigarettes were providing a nice smokey ambiance. The guys came on around 8:40...played for a little over 2 hours (I believe).
Being from Toronto and well versed in all things Hip, it is always interesting for me to see the demographics of a crowd and this crowd had a few generations covered. I am not a fan of the drunken frat boy thing and there was none of that in our 'area' and we were about middle of the 1,000 or so crowd. I am also not a fan of the business dude that just stands there the whole show and checks his effin' BB every 3 minutes...thankfully we only had one of those in our area, and hopefully he was the only one in the venue - what a moron.
But, everyone got along and was respectful of others space.
I introduced my best mates who happen to be Americans to this band in the 90's. This band has brought us together each of the last three tours and for those on here that are "settled" with family, you know that is not an easy venture, especially when you are scattered across the continent. And even more interesting from a fans perspective is to get objective reviews from them.
They felt that at times last evening that Gord moved away from singing to yelling. They have heard many songs on the older albums and then when they hear them live, they wished he would just sing through some of the lyrics as they are on the albums.
He got the crowd going a few times for sure but this show had some valleys in it where most shows I have attended just level off before taking you to the next peak. I think he was not in the best form last night...good form but I am guessing he would not have given himself an "A" on this show and perhaps a B-.
My one friend pointed out that even during BobCageon there was some unnecessary yelling of lyrics...he even asked if he is compensating for a lack of range from days gone by? hmm?
My peaks last night were Transformation, Gift Shop and Greasy Jungle, Ahead by a century, Flamenco and then the last 5 tunes leading into the break, as well as the encore; which was fantastic. I was sweating.
The plateaus for me, and perhaps valleys for most of the crowd were: Kids Don't get it, Man Machine Poem and Its a good life...
The show overall was great and the amazing thing about this group is that you will get 2 very different experiences from one show to the next. And that is what unites us to this band - they can take us on this incredible hike that has a ton of peaks that make for great experiences and memories.
I would love to see these guys go really deep into DFN, Up to Here and Henhouse while sprinkling some songs from everything else...
...And maybe even a Sherpa for the next hike! See you Wednesday in LA. Personal note - I used to be number 12 in the hockey program so hopefully the stars are aligning as the LA show is on 12/12/12
Great line from Gordo...I love his socio-political rants! I believe his quote was, "it has to take more than the cold to unite us"
Still one of the greatest bands that is playing incredibly tight and really enjoying themselves. It is fun to be in the room when they start building the songs into their crescendo and we anticipate and then participate by singing and dancing along on the occasions when the music grabs our nerve! The music grabbed me, spoke to me and even shook me a number of times last night.
what an incredible venue...the pictures and posters on the wall is worth getting to a show here early and walking around.
We got there for 7:55 and no line and were whisked in. The crowd then started getting into position around 8:15 and lots of, umm american cigarettes were providing a nice smokey ambiance. The guys came on around 8:40...played for a little over 2 hours (I believe).
Being from Toronto and well versed in all things Hip, it is always interesting for me to see the demographics of a crowd and this crowd had a few generations covered. I am not a fan of the drunken frat boy thing and there was none of that in our 'area' and we were about middle of the 1,000 or so crowd. I am also not a fan of the business dude that just stands there the whole show and checks his effin' BB every 3 minutes...thankfully we only had one of those in our area, and hopefully he was the only one in the venue - what a moron.
But, everyone got along and was respectful of others space.
I introduced my best mates who happen to be Americans to this band in the 90's. This band has brought us together each of the last three tours and for those on here that are "settled" with family, you know that is not an easy venture, especially when you are scattered across the continent. And even more interesting from a fans perspective is to get objective reviews from them.
They felt that at times last evening that Gord moved away from singing to yelling. They have heard many songs on the older albums and then when they hear them live, they wished he would just sing through some of the lyrics as they are on the albums.
He got the crowd going a few times for sure but this show had some valleys in it where most shows I have attended just level off before taking you to the next peak. I think he was not in the best form last night...good form but I am guessing he would not have given himself an "A" on this show and perhaps a B-.
My one friend pointed out that even during BobCageon there was some unnecessary yelling of lyrics...he even asked if he is compensating for a lack of range from days gone by? hmm?
My peaks last night were Transformation, Gift Shop and Greasy Jungle, Ahead by a century, Flamenco and then the last 5 tunes leading into the break, as well as the encore; which was fantastic. I was sweating.
The plateaus for me, and perhaps valleys for most of the crowd were: Kids Don't get it, Man Machine Poem and Its a good life...
The show overall was great and the amazing thing about this group is that you will get 2 very different experiences from one show to the next. And that is what unites us to this band - they can take us on this incredible hike that has a ton of peaks that make for great experiences and memories.
I would love to see these guys go really deep into DFN, Up to Here and Henhouse while sprinkling some songs from everything else...
...And maybe even a Sherpa for the next hike! See you Wednesday in LA. Personal note - I used to be number 12 in the hockey program so hopefully the stars are aligning as the LA show is on 12/12/12