[chagrinfalls]

I discovered something I already knew I guess, which is that seating can have a huge impact on my concert experience. I saw them in Ottawa earlier in the week, standing directly in front of them about halfway back on the floor, & it appeared that the band sorta all stood in a loose line in front of me (Johnny being the obvious exception lol). But from the side, which is where I sat last night, it becomes immediately obvious that that's not the case. The other guys in the band are in fact quite closely clustered around Gord the whole night. It's a very moving visual when it hits you, as it did several times during the night--esp for parts of Fiddlers Green which tore me up.

These are a couple of images I found that give an idea of what I'm talking about.

Compare this, which is how it appeared to me from straight on (obv from the back, just because I didn't want to search for another hour to find a decent front view):


to this, which is the visual that emerges when I saw them from the side:




Maybe it's unconscious on their part, that as soon as they fire up they are all right there in case Gord needs them. It was just really lovely to watch them, to my mind anyway, "take care" of Gord in this way.

I really noticed the emotions & chemistry among the guys last night. When they played, the way they make room for eachother almost without even thinking about it, without actually needing to look up & watch the other person move. Gord apologizing to Paul for his lyric stumbles, & Paul looking at him like... I can't even put his expression into words. The way you look at your own brother telling you he needs to bug you to drive him to the hospital because he broke his leg but you find out later from someone else he did it rescuing your dog from a fire. The comfortable physical intimacy, hugging oneanother, kissing Gord--to me, it's really extraordinary that they would share that with the audience. All of them linked arm in arm at the very end, saying thankyou/goodbye as a band.

Someone started an earlier thread about Gord S being on fire this tour--he was amazing last night. And I got the impression it was a particularly hard night for our man Gord. Things he couldn't hide, even if he might have wished to.