Category: Concert Reviews

*Thanks to Flickr user julep67, Miss Emily and my friend Trish for these photos.

The last few weeks have had me surrounded by The Wall. Listening to the live album, watching the film for the first time and to cap it all off…seeing Roger Waters perform The Wall at the Scotiabank Place.

The Wall is Pink Floyd’s opus from 1980 which outlines the story of a rock star gone mad…building up an alienating wall only to tear it down again. It’s hard to convey a story through music only as there is not a lot of room for dialogue…hence (probably) the reasons of making a film and an epic tour to accompany the album.

The tour originally only lasted 29 dates as it was so freaking expensive to tour around with. The sheer theatrics were unheard of back in the day…building an actual wall on stage in between the band and the audience. There is no footage available (or if there is, I have not seen it) so I can only go by the tales of it’s epicness.

Sunday night, we headed out to the Scotiabank Place to catch the show. I was curious as to whether or not it would updated 30 years later…as in solely relying on video screens. I was pleasantly surprised to see an actual wall half set up on stage when we took our seats! This was the real deal!

There was a big crew of us…Jean-Francois, Marie-Claude, Vero, Mike, Benoit, Michael and Alvaro were with us back in Section 228. While I usually hate sitting so far away, I was content with it this time around as it allowed us to see the entire stadium. We stared in awe at the majestic set that awaited us.

The show started in with In The Flesh? And started off strong. Fireworks, planes crashing into the wall, crazy spotlights going everywhere…what a great entrance! From our vantage point, all we could see is Roger Waters dressed all in black other than his white sneakers which I had a good laugh at. They were brighter than the spotlights!

The entire concert was like nothing I’ve seen before. I was truly amazed at some of the visual effects they used and I loved, loved, LOVED the building of the Wall during the first half of the show. They would have stagehands placing bricks into the wall while the band played on. I can only imagine the choreography of this entire concert. It was like they never missed a beat.

Some highlights:
– There were rumours that David Gilmour would show up on one date of the tour. Of course, ours was not the one he would show up at. However, during Comfortably Numb, the guitarist playing the solo could not be seen by us as there was a giant spotlight DIRECTLY IN OUR EYES! I had a giggle fit imaging David Gilmour actually showing up in Ottawa and us unable to see it because of a spotlight!
– Videos were being projected onto the wall. When an additional brick was placed in, video appeared onto the new brick. It was quite interesting to see this happen.
– My favourite part of the night was near the end of the first set when they were placing the final bricks into the wall. They started playing with video projection and making it look like there were holes in the wall (black projected onto some bricks) which allowed the stagehands to put in the final bricks without the audience really noticing (unless they were paying close attention). In the end, at the end of the song, BAM! The entire wall sans one was built and then the final brick placed in after Goodbye Cruel World played.
– The band was quite excellent. Benoit mentioned how he didn’t think the co-singer next to Roger didn’t cut it, but I felt differently. I thought the band did a stellar job of playing The Wall for us.
– It was interesting to have the band play behind the wall for us for awhile in the second half. Thankfully they only did it for one song!
– The Wall exploding at the end was definitely a plus!

There is so much to talk about…the giant inflatable puppets, the projections of fallen loved ones over time, the kids from Manotick singing Another Brick in a Wall (which Vero didn’t believe they were singing. Come on!)…all in all, it was an amazing night. I also managed to score a poster on my way out but had to wait quite a bit to get it. Luckily they were not sold out on the bottom level as they were on the upper when I went to get one.

I got the chance to go to Edmonton for a conference and I figured I should see if there were any good shows in town. Lo and behold, I find out that 30 Seconds to Mars is going to be in town! This was epic news for me…I have been a big fan since their first album almost a decade ago and have yet to see them live. I had no idea what to expect, but I knew I couldn’t pass the opportunity up. I purchased my ticket and after the first day of the workshop, I hopped on a bus to the West Edmonton Mall with the rest of the group and then said goodbye as I headed to meander around the mall until showtime.

The Edmonton Event Center is an interesting spot to have a concert…I would say it reminds me most of the Capital Music Hall (the old one on Rideau) which isn’t a bad thing. It was an all-ages show with the under-19 year olds herded off to one small side of the stage and the rest of us to the remaining bar area.

I must say, going to a concert on my own is not something I do often, but I don’t mind it all that much. The only thing that bugs me is the time I have to kill simply standing there! It was definitely an hour or so waiting for an opening band to take the stage.

I have no idea what the name of the opening band was but I must admit they got everyone primed up. They were over the top punk/pop/whatever…the drummer was killer and the guy was quite the showman in his leather pants and mohawk.

Time passes and the place is packed…I’m dead center stage and the crowd around me is fierce. I ask myself if I want to bother moving to a less restrictive spot but I figure I’ll see how the crowd turns out.

The band hits the stage and no more than a verse into the first song, Jared Leto (with his pleather jacket and crazy shades) stops the show demanding that audience go crazy. He rants on for a few minutes about how quiet we are and this is not what to expect from a 30 Seconds to Mars show. He then asks everyone to rush the stage and they start up again. I was caught up in the crowd and I haven’t been that way for many years…and I was loving it! This was a rock show! The crowd ebbed and flowed, crowdsurfers everywhere, beer being spilled…ahhh….definitely not a show to bring the parents to!

Vince pointed out that the drummer of the band was amazing and so for the most part I was checking his playing out. His drumset was insane. I swear it had 75 pieces! Someone told me that you can tune your drums to a certain key…hence the need for more drums if you really wanted to go all out.

Jared Leto was quite the showman. I really enjoyed how he played with the lighting of the backdrop and spun around with his coat-tails spinning as well. He played his guitar a few times and was primarly focussed on making it the best possible show it could have been…which pretty well involved ranting to us at all times to get moving.

The first half of the set was killer energy…then they stop everything and Jared comes back out with his acoustic, plays a few tunes (just verses, maybe a chorus) which allows the crowd to get a breather for a good 25 minutes. Then they ended the set off with The Kill and Kings & Queens where the band invites as many fans onto the stage as they possibly can! I can’t deny that the band wants to make their fans have a great time.

Some thoughts:
– While I can say I didn’t mind the fact that I got through into a crowd of frenzy, I have to admit that his ranting got a little old after awhile. It’s one thing to try and get the crowd into the spirit of things, but he started berated certain fans for not moving around enough. This pulls into the question the whole ‘do what you want to do at a concert’…in the end, I think they went a little overboard on ranting…I know if Mike were there, he would been vehmently opposed to what was going on. I’ve read on the Forums that is a very typical thing that happens at the concert and his fans are divided on this front…they are either with him or against him. I can say that it definitely made me feel like I was at Barrymore’s again though. Fun!
– The concert was short. 1.5 hours and that’s it. That’s not an unusual time for a concert, but 25 minutes of that was Jared Leto with acoustic in hand, chatting with the crowd, asking for requests, playing half a song and then asking if he should play another. I wouldn’t have minded it if he played full songs but I felt like I was just watching some open mic night weirdness. Granted, 15 years ago, if you asked me how I enjoyed this part, I’m sure I would have said something like “It was so amazing that a singer would ask for requests at his own show and even though he only played a verse, it was epic!”
– Jared Leto sings high, very high on his albums so I was wondering how that would translate into a live show. I would say it’s kind of a win-lose scenario on that front. Essentially, he didn’t sing his choruses all that much, but depended on the crowds to sing it for them. Hearing a crowd sing the chorus is pretty cool, but for every song? Meh.

All in all, I was happy to see 30 Seconds to Mars but I can’t help but say that I was left a little unsatisfied. If that’s what a typical show is like, I’m not sure if I would go again, especially for the fact that we hear so little music. But hey, maybe they want to be like the Beatles. 🙂

Setlist nabbed from the Forums:
Escape
NOTH
Attack
Search & Destroy
ABL
CTTE
This Is War
100 Suns
L490
(acoustic set some partial)
From Yesterday
Hurricane
Alibi
The Kill
Kings & Queens

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!!!

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