Review: Sam Roberts Band – Capital Music Hall April 21

How do I start this review of the Sam Roberts Band from Friday night?Well, perhaps I can steal a little title from the band’s posting about the show: 5 Alarm Show.

We showed up to the Capital Music Hall in time to check out the merchandise and grab a few beers. We positioned ourselves on the left of the stage near the Smirnoff Ice cooler. I don’t really like hanging to anywhere other than the center of the stage due to liking how the show sounds from that vantage, but I was pleasantly surprised after the first band came on and it wasn’t a bad spot at all.

Malajube was pretty cool actually. I had never heard of them, and now I knew why. They were a Francophone band from Montreal! I’ve never seen a French band open for an English one…I enjoyed them and my other co-horts in crime did also. It was hilarious how the singer threw on a monkey mask for the last half of the set. At first I thought they had a beaver on one of their amps! They definitely didn’t have much room on the stage as one of the guitarists was stuck behind one amp. Anyhow, I would definitely recommend checking these guys out. Catchy tunes.

Judging from the hockey playoffs, we figured we wouldn’t see Sammy and les boys anytime before 10:15. Sure enough, around 10:20, they show up and start off with Mystified, Heavy and Taj Mahal and then get into Dead End. I would have preffered if they opened up with a rocking tune, but they were decent enough. Near the end of Dead End, the sound went out on the PA speakers so we couldn’t hear the vocals at all. When I say ‘at all’, I mean they were just really muffled with the rest of the mix coming from the amps. At the end of Dead End, we realized the fire alarm was going off and the band was wondering what the heck was going on. Judging from the post on their site, the smoke machine set the alarms off (which is ridiculous in my thoughts…what kind of venue is this? Oh, New Capital Musical Hall, you have a long way to come.) The band said some words which I couldn’t catch, but they had decided to go on with the show. This wouldn’t have been too bad if the PA system had been on, but it was not so the band were just full out amps on stage. I suggested to my friends that someone pass them a note asking them to crank it to ’11’. 😉

The Gate, Hard Road, and The Resistance all lacked the oomph but near the end I realized that the band was giving it their all and that I shouldn’t let a simple thing like a PA system bring my mood down. I gave it my all and the rock gods graced us with the PA system again once The Bootleg Saint started. Also, the roadies wisened to the dilemna and duct taped a towel over the fire alarm bell right next to the stage. Kudos their thinking. Doesn’t look like the venue staff were thinking about much at all.

You can see the rest of the setlist attached. Mind Flood was amazing. Brother Down was amazing. That’s how you get the crowd going. Oh man…everything was amazing.

Encore #1 brought out the acoustic for Uprising Down Under and then they ripped into Eileen and Rarefied. Excellent tracks.

By this time I had moved up near the stage into the middle just to get a little more into the show. I would like to think that the crowd had something to do with the second encore happening, cause they were great. I’m not generally impressed by the Ottawa crowds, but I thought they were worthy near the end.

They came out for Bridge to Nowhere (which seems to not be their choice checking out the setlist) which was great. They left the stage and all was good.

During the show, there were chants for James which was great since it was his first show back after surgery. Sammy said a few words about his return which was a nice touch.

All in all, I enjoyed the show once I got past the PA system going down (which was REALLY bringing me down for a song or two).

I passed on the tour shirts this time around as I can’t say that I really care for them. I picked up a sticker for my guitar case with the album artwork of Chemical City when I went outside.

OH! Almost forgot the best part. My girlfriend managed to snag a setlist for me which at one point I had reached for out of her hand and it ripped since it was all soggy (must be the beer!). Ah well. Also looks like Mystified, Heavy was underneath the duct tape that was holding it down and got ripped off. She also managed to get a guitar pick.

All I can ask for is that someone magically taped this concert (which is doubtful. Doesn’t seem like there is a taper movement in Ottawa).

Hope everyone has a good show when they catch them on this tour!