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annathepiperPicoreview: Quality-wise, the sound mix at the show was too loud so most of the songs were almost incomprehensible. This kind of killed the show for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solarbird, but the extremely high good humor of the bands totally made up for it for me, and so did post-show encounters with band members at a local pub. Since this was the last show on this particular tour, both Carbon Leaf (the opening act) and Great Big Sea were in positively devilish humor, and this rolled right out into their interactions with each other and the audience. So even if the songs were hard to make out for those of us right down by the stage, the energy of the evening still made it more than memorable and a night for west-coast GBS fans to be talking about for years.
Big snugs go out togerimaple (Geri) and elfmaid (Amy) for coming down from Vancouver to crash at the Murkworks and accompany us to the show, and to Monica (who is not on LJ), one of the erstwhile members of our jamming group Three Good Measures, for joining us as well to bring the number of our merry band to five. These things are always more fun in herds!
This whole weekend turned out to be pretty insane for Dara and me. Not only did we have the show to deal with, but we also had to figure out how to go see two, count 'em, two houses that just came on the market. Dara had a local gallery actually ask for a meeting to look at her art, and two different showings scheduled for the space we're trying to rent out in the Murk. And I had an online meeting scheduled on Two Moons MUSH, as well as a followup appointment with my chiropractor to make certain that my little body, which has undergone a lot of intensive chiropractic and massage work in the last week, would be able to withstand the rigors of a concert. In between all of this, we had to arrange for proper times for Geri and Amy to make it to the Murkworks and for Monica to come up from Kent, so that we could all go downtown together on the bus.
We got the house viewing out of the way on Friday night, freeing up Dara to go meet with the gallery on Saturday morning. So I went into a "make the house not look sucky" cleaning sweep, since we had guests due to arrive. And I started counting down the hours, as the need to get myself into "not looking sucky" shape and therefore into the shower grew progressively more vital. I mean, it wasn't like I wasn't going to get rumpled and overheated anyway--that's pretty much a given at a GBS show--but I wanted to at least start off clean. ;) Fortunately I was able to get housematerisu to watch out for arriving guests while I showered--and Dara came home while I was in the shower anyway, so it turned out to be all good.
I put on my Sea of No Cares shirt for the occasion. Dara really, REALLY likes that shirt, or I should perhaps say, how I fill out that shirt. Much amusement was had by Geri and Amy as they got a gander at Dara ogling me. *^_^*
Geri and Amy soon showed up and we started having a very pleasant conversation about mutual interests. It turned out that Amy, in addition to being a GBS fan, is also an SF/F fan--and specifically with an eye to SF/F art. She recognized a lot of the artwork we have hanging on our walls and has hung out with many of those artists; she's also attended science fiction conventions. And she even knows what MUSHes are, and is an Elfquest fan, so when I told her about Two Moons MUSH she perked RIGHT UP and was thrilled to hear that there is still a small, diehard contingent of Elfquest fandom on the net. Also, amazingly enough, it turned out that Amy had participated in an APA called "Bizarre Wars"--through which she was acquainted with the artwork of another friend of mine and Dara's, a guy named Rod Smith in Kentucky. So lots of cool "what a small world" mileage there.
I took an opportunity to snarf down a sandwich, and found myself bursting into random bits of "John Barbour" since that song's been haunting me for the past several days. Amy liked what she heard of my voice. *preen* She has some musical background too, so that was yet another thing we had in common.
Then I zoomed off for my chiropractor appointment, listening to stuff on my GBS car tape all the way and belting out "Consequence Free" and "Jack Hinks" for the sake of really revving up the proper mood. At the appointment, which went quickly and painlessly, I had the satisfaction of being able to tell my chiropractor that she'd done something vitally important in the last adjustment--this past week I've felt better than I have in months. So this was very encouraging, and gave me a lot of comfort that I'd probably be able to handle being on my feet for the whole show.
When I came back Monica hadn't yet shown up, but it didn't take her long to arrive. And it was very good to see her on our doorstep again--Monica hadn't been to the Murk since our jamming group fell apart last year! A bunch of hugging happened, and some more conversation--and then we all barrelled out into the sunshine to head for the nearest bus stop and go downtown. (Well, sunshine being defined as 'that random state of Seattle weather where the sky is three-quarters gray and one-quarter sunny, and which part is which changes at any random moment, as does the temperature, the force of the wind, and whether or not water is falling out of the sky'. Seattle weather. Gotta love it.)
As we were walking to the bus stop, a mother and a couple small children were on the sidewalk with us. One of them got ahead of the rest of her family and scampered along in our midst. We joked about her not coming to the show with us.
Geri and Amy were both rather impressed by the entrance into the underground bus tunnel downtown; that was kind of a cool 'oh yeah, tourists might think this aspect of Seattle is pretty nifty' moment. I believe it was also on the bus ride downtown, though, when Monica first mentioned the issue she has with the second verse of "Lucky Me"--which is to say, it strikes her as an unnecessary glamorization of the phemonenon of teenage motherhood. This was to lead to amusing post-show adventures later.
We hit Westlake Center to raid the food court, as that seemed to be the fastest, easiest option to get a variety of foods that would allow for both Geri's and Amy's dietary sensitivities; lots more conversation there, about things like languages (how many words are required for fluency in various languages, colorful idioms and such), Worldcons and where they're going to be held (Glasgow next year, hurray), and the unfortunate location of our table right next to the open-air atrium in the center of the mall. Geri got around this by sitting with her back to the atrium, which let her not have to look out.
Dara declared we should be bad and go to Godiva Chocolates, which was a plan I heartily supported. Dara teased me about picking out four different truffles--did I realize, she asked, how rich they were? But ah, that was the point. The chocolate rush, combined with the adrenaline of being at a GBS show to begin with, was going to set me up for the whole evening. Besides: chocolate truffles==YUM.
Geri and Amy couldn't do the candy there for their aforementioned dietary sensitivities, and Monica has issues with dairy stuff, but Geri and Amy did get jelly bellies and gummi bears from the candy store one floor up. So we had a plethora of tasty things to nibble on while we scampered off to the Moore to get in line. Fortunately, it wasn't a long walk at all--the Moore is a few scant blocks away from Westlake Center. In fact, it was closer than I thought, because Dara and I were in the middle of belting out "Old Black Rum" coming up a hill--and suddenly OH HEY here's the line!
We chattered about a number of things in the line: the architectural features of both the Moore and the building across the street (which led into Amy talking about her studying video game design, so she finds herself looking at everything she passes and trying to figure out how she'd model it). Celebrity encounters (I told Amy and Geri my stories of bumping into Alan after the 3/17/2001 show in Seattle at the Showbox, as well as passing Russell Crowe on the streets of Portland in August 2001; she countered with a very sweet little tale of talking to Brent Spiner at a con). Stuff going on in the life of Monica, and whether she would be able to jam with us again sometime. The Vancouver show coming up on 6/25 (and assorted reasons why we probably wouldn't make that one, mine being that day being a workday and Geri's being finances).
We spotted a few other OKPers in the line, including Mandy (who was due to meet up with Geri and Amy today) and Daffy down from Vancouver; Daffy wound up drifting into our conversation, and asked about the possibility of hanging out with us on the floor--to which we were all "Sure!" See aforementioned commentary re: these things being more fun in herds.
Dara and Monica went off on a quest to locate earplugs and came back with a packet of ten pairs, which we distributed amongst us. Geri had a minor panic attack as she misplaced her ticket, and only found it again after much frantic pawing through assorted pockets. Fortunately, she did not in fact lose the ticket!
It kind of went without saying that Geri and Amy, as the non-locals, had never been to the Moore before. But neither had Dara, Monica, or I. Dara had thought that we'd gone to that theater once a long time ago withsmeehrrr to see Blues Traveller perform, but once we got in there the place didn't seem familiar to her. And I certainly didn't remember being in there before. The Moore is smaller than I expected in terms of sheer space on the main floor--but it's also very tall, with two balconies. I hadn't realized that until I looked up and over my shoulder.
I had desperately hoped that they would remove the seats on the main floor for the show. This desire was thwarted. However, at least at first I didn't necessarily think this was a bad thing, because having seats meant that we got to sit down before the opening act actually started. Since I still wasn't a hundred percent certain of the status of my back, I wasn't really going to object to the opportunity to sit down at least for a little bit.
We wound up claiming a good chunk of the fourth row in the center section, with my seat more or less situated at Stage Alan. Dara was to my right, and Geri, Amy, and Monica to my left. We hung out just yakking for a while; I let Dara play with my PDA since she got bored just waiting. And because it was Necessary--Great Big Sea, you see, had not and still does not have enough of my money--I took a chance to scamper out to the Swag Table for the opportunity to buy another GBS-related piece of clothing for my wardrobe. With Dara's wholehearted seal of approval for my last GBS-related shirt, I wanted another of that ilk, and initially wound up choosing a long-sleeved powder blue shirt with 'GBS NFLD Est. 1993' in small letters across the chest and a cute little STEREO logo on the back down towards the bottom. I waffled between pink and blue, though; another fan at the table thought the blue would go better with my eyes. But then I decided the pink was actually cooler and would go with more of my current set of shorts, and plus, I don't actually own any pink shirts! So though I actually bought a blue shirt, the guy at the table (whose name was Kalem, we learned later during the show when Alan did introductions and the obligatory 'special thanks to' commentary--though I initially misheard it as 'Caleb') let me trade it a bit later for a pink one.
I spotted Lynda from the OKP sitting down on the front row, but at least just before the show she was the only person I immediately recognized from previous GBS-related outings.
We saw a couple of big security guys hanging out down by the stage, which made us wonder whether they were going to let anyone down into the open area between the front row and the seats. And I did an idle scoping of the instruments visible on the stage: Bob's familiar accordions were off to the far right from my vantage point, along with his violin. There was a huge stand-up bass sitting on its side towards the center of the stage. And a little farther back, behind Bob's instruments, I spotted what looked at the time like an electric mandolin. That made me go "Ooh, hey!" Clearly an instrument owned by one of the Carbon Leaf boys.
And speaking of whom...
The tickets claimed the show was supposed to start at 8pm, but we were all pretty much expecting this to actually mean "8pm Musician Time", which could translate to anything from 8:05 to 8:30. As it happened, the show did start more or less on time!
As the lights went down, we noticed people swarming down into the aforementioned open area. The security guys seemed to make a token effort to keep them back; at first, there was just this line of young women a couple of feet in front of the first row of seats. But then more and more people came down, so the security guys seemed to say 'Well, what the hell' and let people go ahead and fill the space. I turned to Dara and asked her if she wanted to go down front; she said she did for GBS, to which I answered that if we were going to go down, we'd better do it right then because we probably wouldn't get another chance. So we went ahead and scampered down to join the others in the open area. We wound up more or less smack dab at Stage Alan, which was a Good and Fine place to be.
Pretty much from the first song, though, it was apparent that there was going to be too much Loud. I could barely make out Carbon Leaf's vocals--which was a shame, because from what little I did make out, I could tell that the lead singer had a pretty fine voice. I didn't get much of their harmony when all four of the front guys started in on the singing; that said, there was one song that I picked up vocals well enough on that I found myself trying to hit wordless notes to harmonize along with them. So I got enough of a vibe of their vocals to clue in that I'd probably like them more if I could hear them better! I also had a hard time hearing the lead singer's whistle playing when he whipped out a whistle in between his vocals. The little whistle wasn't as much of a problem as the big one--the notes on the big one practically vanished in the overall Loud, and I had a very hard time picking them out.
From Dara's and my vantage point, most of the instrumentation we got was drums and bass. Every so often, though, somebody would do a solo and then we'd get to hear that actual instrument. The guy with the stand-up bass did a fine job with it. And the guy with the mandolin did EXCELLENT work with it, as well as with his guitar. He had fingers like water, flowing up and down his fretboards with an amazing speed and intricacy that both Dara and I found very impressive.
One thing was apparent, though--the fans down front during the Carbon Leaf set were in no small part dedicated Carbon Leaf fans. When people started yelling out requests for particular songs, the lead singer cracked a joke about GBS taking care of covering those--which made one person yell, "They won't do them as well!" I noticed more than a few guys immediately surrounding us, and the guy right in front of me was clearly heavily into the music, doing a lot of punching the air with his fist to the beat and suchlike.
I don't know Carbon Leaf's material, so I don't know the names of their songs, but I can remark that one in particular stood out for me for two reasons: the audience participation of a particular clapping rhythm, which was kind of cool, and my getting faked out by the guitarist (the one with the liquid fingers) repeatedly playing the same chord progression that starts off "Mari-Mac". In fact, when they started up that song, I thought it was "Mari-Mac"--since I knew Carbon Leaf had covered it. My more rational brain was pretty certain they wouldn't cover a song by a band for whom they were actually opening, but hey, stranger things have happened!
What really made the Carbon Leaf set for me, though, was how during the final number Alan and Séan danced across the stage behind them! They came out with their arms around one another and danced their way along from one side of the stage to the other; Dara and I both died laughing. That was the first sign we got that the B'ys were in extremely wacky humor for this particular show.
Final verdict for me on Carbon Leaf: hmm. Potential here. I should acquire one of their albums. Recommendations on albums to check out are welcome from any Carbon Leaf fans who happen to read this!
As soon as Carbon Leaf was done, a distinct shift took place in the demographic of fans clustered before the stage. Suddenly the crowd immediately around us got a lot more female--and as a result, noticeably shorter. This was a Good Thing as far as Dara and I were concerned, because it meant that those of us at Stage Alan would in fact be able to SEE Alan.
The women around us started chattering, and asking one another who was on the OKP. We started calling out our OKP handles to one another, and when I announced myself as "Anna the Piper", the fortysomething woman in front of me cried, "I wanted to meet you! I went to your web page, it was really cool!" She introduced herself as Nancy, and introduced her husband as well, and proceeded to tell the younger women around her that she highly recommended turning forty as it was an experience that taught her a lot about herself. I found that kind of cool, speaking as someone who's going to be hitting that same milestone in another five years. ;)
I saw one young woman wearing a pretty cool baby-tee type shirt: powder-blue, with five playing cards across the front with the faces of Kris, Murray, Alan, Séan, and Bob on them. I kept trying to figure out who all was a King or a Jack, but never got a good enough look at the shirt. And another girl told us she was at her very first GBS concert. We assured her she would be coming back for more.
Danny, head GBS roadie, started coming out to do all the usual instrument and mike checks. While he was doing his little twiddles on the various instruments, Dara turned to me and chirped, "This act's kind of weird!" I told her who Danny was, and we both waved frantically and yelled, "HI DANNY!" Hee.
Still too much Loud with the between-show music, though.
And I seized the opportunity to duck to the back of the crowd and lean over and ask Monica and Geri to pass me the bottle of water I had stowed under my seat--'cause I was going to need it, once GBS came out on stage.
The loudness problem continued, unfortunately, into GBS's set. If you know the material, that's okay--most of the audience up front by the stage did, and we were all singing along anyway, but. Dara told me after the show that the songs she didn't know, mostly the ones off the new album, were just as incomprehensible to her as the Carbon Leaf material. This had been a problem at the Paramount in 2002, and it was a problem here, too. Which was disappointing, since GBS shows at the Showbox had never been so hard to make out. Most of the time I could usually catch Alan's vocals and Murray generally came through well, but more than once, even while looking straight at Séan, I couldn't hear what he was singing. And I couldn't make out Bob once until he did "Helmethead".
Alan told us that this was the last show of the tour--and it kind of showed. He and Bob both looked really exhausted, and they all had a sort of wild, manic humor about them--the sort of humor you get when it's 3:30am and you've been up all night. ;) So this rolled right out into their interactions with each other and with the audience and made everything fun even aside from the loudness problem.
Bob is going for a new look, apparently! He's lost the goatee, and his hair's longer than I've seen it before. It was a bit of a shocker, since I think this might well have been the first time I've seen him without the goatee. I'm not sure it's a look that suits him now--since his face is thicker than it was in the days of "Ordinary Day". But we'll see what happens. And since Bob actually seemed to have swiped one of his alarmingly patterned shirts, Séan was almost restrained for once in a light blue Carbon Leaf shirt; this, too, was to lead to amusing post-show adventures later. Alan: form-fitting black shirt with a lot of embroidery in the front. Murray: also a light blue shirt, though damned if I could figure out what the word on it was, 'caffeine' or 'cadillac'. Kris (since we actually got to see him a couple of times as he popped out from behind his drumkit with his accordion): dark blue and black bowling shirt, as near as I can tell.
And now, the set, courtesy of my shiny new PDA stuffed conveniently into my pocket:
Because of the loudness issues during the show, a lot of what I got out of the songs was the rhythm, the behavior of the band, and the behavior of the audience.
It was weird being at a Great Big Sea show that didn't start off with "Donkey Riding". This was a disappointment to me--don't get me wrong, I like "Beat the Drum", but I think "Donkey Riding" is a stronger opening song. "Donkey Riding" coming in immediately after led to the one lesser minus of the show for me--because "Donkey Riding" sounded off. I couldn't figure out whether it was because somebody in the band was singing off-key or whether it was because most of the audience around me was; it made it hard for me to actually find the notes I wanted to hit. And see previous commentary re: not being able to make out most of the vocals. "Donkey Riding" being heavily driven by vocals, it definitely suffered for the harmonies not coming through.
On around to "When I'm Up"--and some lovely Alan goodness, with The Doyle milking every last scrap out of every syllable in that song that he could get. Made up for "Donkey Riding" being off. ;) So did the bit at the beginning, where Alan held out the "meeeeeeee!" at the end of the second-to-last line of the intro, stopped, then got the audience to jump right back in with him to keep the "meeeeeeeee!" going. Hee!
"Shines Right Through Me"--I really like this one, even if half the time I go straight to "When I Am King" when I listen to Something Beautiful*. There's just something about the line "I look at you and it shines right through me" that I really love--and I turned and sang it to Dara at my side. Alan broke out his black electric guitar for this one, which was fun! I hadn't seen an electric in Alan's hands before, and he was clearly having fun rocking it up.
It was probably here, though I must admit that I do not precisely remember, that Alan did the obligatory hawking of Something Beautiful* and informed us that it was possibly the best album ever released in the history of music. Hee.
"Lukey" came in as the first of the Vertical Movement songs, and I realized for the first time that even if you're not necessarily paying active attention, if everyone else around you is engaging in Vertical Movement you pretty much are going to find yourself doing it too. ;) The fun and tricky part is trying to figure out how to do it without stepping on your neighbor's feet or smacking your neighbor's back with your arms, and that got a little challenging for me; my right arm twinged a couple of times, as I put it through a bit more activity than it's had in some time! In the meantime, watching Alan during the second bridge of this ditty was fun; he kept jumping around pointing at people to cue them for their solos, Murray to Kris to Séan and back again. I managed to catch the final "daaaaaay" chord, but only because I was listening hard for it.
"Something Beautiful"--since this was the first of the softer songs played it got easier to make out Alan's vocals. Which was good, because, well, Alan's vocals. He delivered a swoonworthy performance on this one, and towards the end of it I heard someone groan in pleasure: me. Siiiiigh! :)
"Paddy Murphy"--GBS once again demonstrated their affection for Seattle with this one. Séan cracked a joke about the fish-throwers in Pike Place Market, and how in Newfoundland they don't throw the fish, they just catch and eat them. He also joked about the fish-throwers reminding him of Lou Zealand from The Muppet Show--but he didn't remember the name of the Muppet in question. So he started off singing "Ohhhh the night that Paddy Murphy died is a night I'll never forget! All the fish-throwin' guys got loaded drunk--" Then Alan cut him off and leaned over to whisper in his ear and inform him the name he wanted was Lou Zeland. ;) So Séan started up again to swap that name in there, which was funny. So was the way everybody wound up singing the intro of the song, in a sort of flowy, steady rhythm that was a bit of a switch from how I've seen him deliver that intro in the past. Much Funny, there.
The bridge of "Paddy Murphy" also stood out for me as I noted Alan playing the first half on his bouzouki, and then Bob answering him on the accordion with the second half, as opposed to both of them playing the whole bridge together. That was a bit different and fun for my ear, long accustomed to hearing the recorded versions.
I'm pretty sure, thinking back on it (I'm still fairly fried as I write this), that it must have been either just before "Paddy Murphy" or just after where Séan held up a bouquet of flowers someone had given him in honor of his birthday. This had the expected delighted audience reaction.
"When I Am King"--with Alan introducing this one by talking about how he'd written a song about all the things he would do if he were king. Out came the electric again; more fun with Alan rocking it up. Though again, hard to make out much besides the rhythm, so close to the stage. I noticed Bob did not whip out any bagpipes. Another minor disappointment, but just enough to make me go "aww" rather than anything that actually hurt the show. The guitars carried the melody of the bridge where the bagpipe usually plays on the album track, and quite well. (This makes me wonder if Bob was too exhausted to break out the bagpipes, or something; I haven't read, as of this writing, whether they made an appearance on any of the earlier shows of this tour.)
"Sally Ann"--this is not one of my repeat listens off the new album; I don't care too much for it. But that said, my opinion of this song went up when I heard that Alan had actually written it for his two-year-old niece. On first listen, you can't tell that; I certainly had no idea the song was about a little girl. The lyrics give a heavy impression of being about an adult girl. But once you know the song is about a child, its whole character changes. That I couldn't pick this out without that crucial piece of information is something that makes me think a moment and wonder whether it's indicative of someone who's raised on American music, or whether it's just the song. Nothing in particular stood out for me during this ditty; I took a chance to just settle down a bit and try to get my breath and my voice and my strength back.
After that one, the band took a sudden and (at least from my vantage point) inexplicable break back by Kris' drumkit. Alan cast a wry glance out into the audience and told us to talk amongst ourselves, then they stepped back by the drums. I'm pretty sure they were back there belting back Guinness, which I'm absolutely certain was a major contributing factor in what happened next as well as the hijinx a couple of songs later.
A couple of guys to my right in the crowd by the stage started bellowing out "Happy Birthday"--not particularly tunefully, but hey, it's the thought that counts! So that led to everybody else chiming in, which gave us the pleasure of Séan looking slightly startled and then touched at the gesture.
Then the boys came back to their instruments--and Alan started introducing everyone. It seems pretty clear to me at this point that Murray's settled in well as the new bass player--because he's starting to get the same jokes made about him in introductions that Darrell did. ;) This time, we were informed that Murray "lost his virginity on this tour". Muahaha!
Next up, "Penelope". Not one of my faves off of Sea of No Cares, but there was something pretty damned fine about this concert's performance of it--and that was Alan doing the instrumental bridges on his guitar. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I want to play like Alan Doyle when I grow up. Because, well, WOW.
Danny coming out and taking away all the instruments clued me in that "General Taylor" was probably next. But at least for a moment or two I wasn't sure--because the boys of Carbon Leaf came back out on the stage, armed with a big ol' bottle of some form of alcohol. It turned out that they were going to celebrate Séan's birthday in their own inimitable fashion, and boy howdy did they ever. Carbon Leaf's lead singer started in on an improvised version of the first verse--"Well General McCann, he gained the day"--and that sent Séan off on doing a lot of flexing of his muscles in the middle of the stage, and faking Napoleon's classic pose by sticking his hand under an imaginary topcoat, before he came back forward to lead the rest of the song himself. So there we were with ten guys all belting out the lyrics to "General Taylor", and naturally everybody in the audience jumped in too. One of the other Carbon Leaf boys (Carter, I'm fairly sure it was now, now that I know that one's name!) kept belting back the contents of the bottle he'd brought out as we all sang, and he kept singing too. And if that wasn't enough, Alan and Carter were hanging onto one another in highly and suggestively entertaining ways at several points during the song as well. It was a moment of beauty, and the best damned rendition of "General Taylor" I'd ever seen.
"Scolding Wife"! I hadn't been actively expecting this one, but it's still new enough to me at a GBS show that I groove hardcore on hearing them do it live. This was one of the songs where the vocals actually came through, and one of the moments where we got to hear Murray and Bob both fairly clearly. And naturally, everybody screamed in delight when Séan got to his verse about being thrown naked on the floor. ;>
"Let It Go" has become something of a theme song for me for when I'm really stressed out, and so for that reason I do like it a lot. But this was another point during the show where I made out enough of the song to know what it was, but little else. So I don't have much of an idea of how it sounded during this performance, sadly.
Just before "I'm a Rover" Alan got mischievous again--and informed the gentlemen of the house that they were now going to do a song for the ladies. And then he added to those of us of the female persuasion, "Ladies of the greater Seattle area, there are rovers among you. Rovers with no professional obligations tomorrow." Talk about your blanket invitation to commit acts of deviltry, neh? ;> But this was another loud song--so very little came through of the actual song but the noise. I kept getting bits of Bob's fiddle as it stood out above the rest of the instruments, but not much else. I have practically no impression at all of the vocals getting through.
I think it might have been just before "Sea of No Cares" that we had a bit of Alan having to police the audience, which was a very rowdy audience indeed this time around. A couple of guys in particular kept screaming "GO FLAMES GO!" at random points all throughout the show; they kept moving around, too. Dara and I noticed them initially to our right, and eventually they wound up by the stage up on the left. They started getting loud enough and annoying enough that Alan finally shot them down--but in that devastatingly polite fashion that seems to be so very Canadian. He pointed them out, encouraged the audience to give it up for the Flames, and then to give it up for not having to hear the gentlemen's opinion on the matter anymore. Fortunately, this did in fact shut them up.
Yet again, though, the song kind of vanished in the overall wash of noise. I remember being a trifle confused on the opening measures just trying to figure out what the heck they'd launched into--but at that point it was all rhythm. And I could almost hear myself singing better than I could hear the B'ys, which was kind of impressive, given that I was already hoarse by then and not able to sing very loudly at all. It was like I was in a box made out of noise, or perhaps a box of quiet in the middle of a huge wave of noise, and only the stuff right in the box was getting to my ears.
"Helmethead" registered better--I'd been waiting for this one just for the extra squeal I'd had cued up for the sake of Bob singing lead on something. And as pretty much expected, the band got to rile up the audience and make with the requisite audience participation in the form of everybody screaming "FARE THEE WELL" in the choruses. See aforementioned commentary re: box of noise, though. I heard my own voice following the melody better than I heard anything else besides Bob.
After that, finally, "John Barbour". The box of noise dissolved some--and we could hear Séan. He made it worth it. Lots of people around me, as well as I myself, sang along with him. Yes, this means I'm one of those GBS fans who has to sing along with everything--but the trick I try for is to sing softly enough that I can actually still hear the singing on the stage. It is very, very difficult to not sing this music, and this song was especially irresistible to me since it had been haunting me all week. Other things I noticed during this song--both Séan's guitar and Alan's bouzouki were capoed on the third fret, which was a visual confirmation ofkathrynt and I having figured out that the song is in B flat. I also noted that Alan did in fact have his bouzouki for this ditty. But it had only occurred to me a few days prior to the show that Séan does in fact sing this entire song by himself. I can't think of a single other GBS ditty where only one of them sings all the way through.
Back into the box of noise for "Consequence Free", "Mari-Mac", and "Ordinary Day"--and a lot of audience singing carrying lots of parts of the last of these. Lots of Alan leaning out from his front-man vantage point and grinning down at us as he played.
The first "GREAT! BIG! SEA!" chant to get the B'ys back out seemed to pick up an extra syllable, and came out "GREAT, BIG, SEA, HEY!"
Encore round #1: Alan's liquid solo performance of "Boston and St. John's"--and more very soft audience singing backing him up. Lovely, lovely guitar work. "Excursion Around the Bay", which is still odd to me sung by Alan, but Séan's bodhran was full of rhythm and fire, and the audience was all about the punching of fists into the air and the bellowing of "HEY!" at the end of every chorus. And then "Fortune"--which was a little surprising to me. I'd expected them to do "Chafe's Ceilidh" for the obligatory instrumental. But maybe "Fortune" can arguably be called a better concert number since it does have that vocal bit in the middle, and it's very fun indeed to bellow out "FORTY-FIVE FROM CARBONEAR!"
Encore round #2: "If you ever come to St. John's, beware of the old black rum!" I'd expected this as an encore, but again--too much Loud. :( Which bummed me out; I could barely follow even the rhythm at that point. It wasn't the same hugely complicated arrangement that they did at the tail end of the concert on the Great Big DVD; it was closer to the Road Rage arrangement, complete with "And I drank sixteen doubles for the price of ooooooooooone!" at the end. After that--the instruments fell out and we could FINALLY hear all the boys singing again as they belted out an a capella "Rant and Roar".
Alan told us Seattle is a spectacular city, and that we're always good to GBS when they're here, and cried, "Ask us back!"
Well, duh. Like this is going to be a problem? ;)
This post is already huge--and I am positively exhausted. So I am going to cut this off here and go ahead and post it to LJ; tomorrow, I will follow up with the post-show hijinx and the tale of how Anna Was Teased By the Shanty Man!
solarbird, but the extremely high good humor of the bands totally made up for it for me, and so did post-show encounters with band members at a local pub. Since this was the last show on this particular tour, both Carbon Leaf (the opening act) and Great Big Sea were in positively devilish humor, and this rolled right out into their interactions with each other and the audience. So even if the songs were hard to make out for those of us right down by the stage, the energy of the evening still made it more than memorable and a night for west-coast GBS fans to be talking about for years.Big snugs go out to
gerimaple (Geri) and elfmaid (Amy) for coming down from Vancouver to crash at the Murkworks and accompany us to the show, and to Monica (who is not on LJ), one of the erstwhile members of our jamming group Three Good Measures, for joining us as well to bring the number of our merry band to five. These things are always more fun in herds!This whole weekend turned out to be pretty insane for Dara and me. Not only did we have the show to deal with, but we also had to figure out how to go see two, count 'em, two houses that just came on the market. Dara had a local gallery actually ask for a meeting to look at her art, and two different showings scheduled for the space we're trying to rent out in the Murk. And I had an online meeting scheduled on Two Moons MUSH, as well as a followup appointment with my chiropractor to make certain that my little body, which has undergone a lot of intensive chiropractic and massage work in the last week, would be able to withstand the rigors of a concert. In between all of this, we had to arrange for proper times for Geri and Amy to make it to the Murkworks and for Monica to come up from Kent, so that we could all go downtown together on the bus.
We got the house viewing out of the way on Friday night, freeing up Dara to go meet with the gallery on Saturday morning. So I went into a "make the house not look sucky" cleaning sweep, since we had guests due to arrive. And I started counting down the hours, as the need to get myself into "not looking sucky" shape and therefore into the shower grew progressively more vital. I mean, it wasn't like I wasn't going to get rumpled and overheated anyway--that's pretty much a given at a GBS show--but I wanted to at least start off clean. ;) Fortunately I was able to get housemate
risu to watch out for arriving guests while I showered--and Dara came home while I was in the shower anyway, so it turned out to be all good. I put on my Sea of No Cares shirt for the occasion. Dara really, REALLY likes that shirt, or I should perhaps say, how I fill out that shirt. Much amusement was had by Geri and Amy as they got a gander at Dara ogling me. *^_^*
Geri and Amy soon showed up and we started having a very pleasant conversation about mutual interests. It turned out that Amy, in addition to being a GBS fan, is also an SF/F fan--and specifically with an eye to SF/F art. She recognized a lot of the artwork we have hanging on our walls and has hung out with many of those artists; she's also attended science fiction conventions. And she even knows what MUSHes are, and is an Elfquest fan, so when I told her about Two Moons MUSH she perked RIGHT UP and was thrilled to hear that there is still a small, diehard contingent of Elfquest fandom on the net. Also, amazingly enough, it turned out that Amy had participated in an APA called "Bizarre Wars"--through which she was acquainted with the artwork of another friend of mine and Dara's, a guy named Rod Smith in Kentucky. So lots of cool "what a small world" mileage there.
I took an opportunity to snarf down a sandwich, and found myself bursting into random bits of "John Barbour" since that song's been haunting me for the past several days. Amy liked what she heard of my voice. *preen* She has some musical background too, so that was yet another thing we had in common.
Then I zoomed off for my chiropractor appointment, listening to stuff on my GBS car tape all the way and belting out "Consequence Free" and "Jack Hinks" for the sake of really revving up the proper mood. At the appointment, which went quickly and painlessly, I had the satisfaction of being able to tell my chiropractor that she'd done something vitally important in the last adjustment--this past week I've felt better than I have in months. So this was very encouraging, and gave me a lot of comfort that I'd probably be able to handle being on my feet for the whole show.
When I came back Monica hadn't yet shown up, but it didn't take her long to arrive. And it was very good to see her on our doorstep again--Monica hadn't been to the Murk since our jamming group fell apart last year! A bunch of hugging happened, and some more conversation--and then we all barrelled out into the sunshine to head for the nearest bus stop and go downtown. (Well, sunshine being defined as 'that random state of Seattle weather where the sky is three-quarters gray and one-quarter sunny, and which part is which changes at any random moment, as does the temperature, the force of the wind, and whether or not water is falling out of the sky'. Seattle weather. Gotta love it.)
As we were walking to the bus stop, a mother and a couple small children were on the sidewalk with us. One of them got ahead of the rest of her family and scampered along in our midst. We joked about her not coming to the show with us.
Geri and Amy were both rather impressed by the entrance into the underground bus tunnel downtown; that was kind of a cool 'oh yeah, tourists might think this aspect of Seattle is pretty nifty' moment. I believe it was also on the bus ride downtown, though, when Monica first mentioned the issue she has with the second verse of "Lucky Me"--which is to say, it strikes her as an unnecessary glamorization of the phemonenon of teenage motherhood. This was to lead to amusing post-show adventures later.
We hit Westlake Center to raid the food court, as that seemed to be the fastest, easiest option to get a variety of foods that would allow for both Geri's and Amy's dietary sensitivities; lots more conversation there, about things like languages (how many words are required for fluency in various languages, colorful idioms and such), Worldcons and where they're going to be held (Glasgow next year, hurray), and the unfortunate location of our table right next to the open-air atrium in the center of the mall. Geri got around this by sitting with her back to the atrium, which let her not have to look out.
Dara declared we should be bad and go to Godiva Chocolates, which was a plan I heartily supported. Dara teased me about picking out four different truffles--did I realize, she asked, how rich they were? But ah, that was the point. The chocolate rush, combined with the adrenaline of being at a GBS show to begin with, was going to set me up for the whole evening. Besides: chocolate truffles==YUM.
Geri and Amy couldn't do the candy there for their aforementioned dietary sensitivities, and Monica has issues with dairy stuff, but Geri and Amy did get jelly bellies and gummi bears from the candy store one floor up. So we had a plethora of tasty things to nibble on while we scampered off to the Moore to get in line. Fortunately, it wasn't a long walk at all--the Moore is a few scant blocks away from Westlake Center. In fact, it was closer than I thought, because Dara and I were in the middle of belting out "Old Black Rum" coming up a hill--and suddenly OH HEY here's the line!
We chattered about a number of things in the line: the architectural features of both the Moore and the building across the street (which led into Amy talking about her studying video game design, so she finds herself looking at everything she passes and trying to figure out how she'd model it). Celebrity encounters (I told Amy and Geri my stories of bumping into Alan after the 3/17/2001 show in Seattle at the Showbox, as well as passing Russell Crowe on the streets of Portland in August 2001; she countered with a very sweet little tale of talking to Brent Spiner at a con). Stuff going on in the life of Monica, and whether she would be able to jam with us again sometime. The Vancouver show coming up on 6/25 (and assorted reasons why we probably wouldn't make that one, mine being that day being a workday and Geri's being finances).
We spotted a few other OKPers in the line, including Mandy (who was due to meet up with Geri and Amy today) and Daffy down from Vancouver; Daffy wound up drifting into our conversation, and asked about the possibility of hanging out with us on the floor--to which we were all "Sure!" See aforementioned commentary re: these things being more fun in herds.
Dara and Monica went off on a quest to locate earplugs and came back with a packet of ten pairs, which we distributed amongst us. Geri had a minor panic attack as she misplaced her ticket, and only found it again after much frantic pawing through assorted pockets. Fortunately, she did not in fact lose the ticket!
It kind of went without saying that Geri and Amy, as the non-locals, had never been to the Moore before. But neither had Dara, Monica, or I. Dara had thought that we'd gone to that theater once a long time ago with
smeehrrr to see Blues Traveller perform, but once we got in there the place didn't seem familiar to her. And I certainly didn't remember being in there before. The Moore is smaller than I expected in terms of sheer space on the main floor--but it's also very tall, with two balconies. I hadn't realized that until I looked up and over my shoulder.I had desperately hoped that they would remove the seats on the main floor for the show. This desire was thwarted. However, at least at first I didn't necessarily think this was a bad thing, because having seats meant that we got to sit down before the opening act actually started. Since I still wasn't a hundred percent certain of the status of my back, I wasn't really going to object to the opportunity to sit down at least for a little bit.
We wound up claiming a good chunk of the fourth row in the center section, with my seat more or less situated at Stage Alan. Dara was to my right, and Geri, Amy, and Monica to my left. We hung out just yakking for a while; I let Dara play with my PDA since she got bored just waiting. And because it was Necessary--Great Big Sea, you see, had not and still does not have enough of my money--I took a chance to scamper out to the Swag Table for the opportunity to buy another GBS-related piece of clothing for my wardrobe. With Dara's wholehearted seal of approval for my last GBS-related shirt, I wanted another of that ilk, and initially wound up choosing a long-sleeved powder blue shirt with 'GBS NFLD Est. 1993' in small letters across the chest and a cute little STEREO logo on the back down towards the bottom. I waffled between pink and blue, though; another fan at the table thought the blue would go better with my eyes. But then I decided the pink was actually cooler and would go with more of my current set of shorts, and plus, I don't actually own any pink shirts! So though I actually bought a blue shirt, the guy at the table (whose name was Kalem, we learned later during the show when Alan did introductions and the obligatory 'special thanks to' commentary--though I initially misheard it as 'Caleb') let me trade it a bit later for a pink one.
I spotted Lynda from the OKP sitting down on the front row, but at least just before the show she was the only person I immediately recognized from previous GBS-related outings.
We saw a couple of big security guys hanging out down by the stage, which made us wonder whether they were going to let anyone down into the open area between the front row and the seats. And I did an idle scoping of the instruments visible on the stage: Bob's familiar accordions were off to the far right from my vantage point, along with his violin. There was a huge stand-up bass sitting on its side towards the center of the stage. And a little farther back, behind Bob's instruments, I spotted what looked at the time like an electric mandolin. That made me go "Ooh, hey!" Clearly an instrument owned by one of the Carbon Leaf boys.
And speaking of whom...
The tickets claimed the show was supposed to start at 8pm, but we were all pretty much expecting this to actually mean "8pm Musician Time", which could translate to anything from 8:05 to 8:30. As it happened, the show did start more or less on time!
As the lights went down, we noticed people swarming down into the aforementioned open area. The security guys seemed to make a token effort to keep them back; at first, there was just this line of young women a couple of feet in front of the first row of seats. But then more and more people came down, so the security guys seemed to say 'Well, what the hell' and let people go ahead and fill the space. I turned to Dara and asked her if she wanted to go down front; she said she did for GBS, to which I answered that if we were going to go down, we'd better do it right then because we probably wouldn't get another chance. So we went ahead and scampered down to join the others in the open area. We wound up more or less smack dab at Stage Alan, which was a Good and Fine place to be.
Pretty much from the first song, though, it was apparent that there was going to be too much Loud. I could barely make out Carbon Leaf's vocals--which was a shame, because from what little I did make out, I could tell that the lead singer had a pretty fine voice. I didn't get much of their harmony when all four of the front guys started in on the singing; that said, there was one song that I picked up vocals well enough on that I found myself trying to hit wordless notes to harmonize along with them. So I got enough of a vibe of their vocals to clue in that I'd probably like them more if I could hear them better! I also had a hard time hearing the lead singer's whistle playing when he whipped out a whistle in between his vocals. The little whistle wasn't as much of a problem as the big one--the notes on the big one practically vanished in the overall Loud, and I had a very hard time picking them out.
From Dara's and my vantage point, most of the instrumentation we got was drums and bass. Every so often, though, somebody would do a solo and then we'd get to hear that actual instrument. The guy with the stand-up bass did a fine job with it. And the guy with the mandolin did EXCELLENT work with it, as well as with his guitar. He had fingers like water, flowing up and down his fretboards with an amazing speed and intricacy that both Dara and I found very impressive.
One thing was apparent, though--the fans down front during the Carbon Leaf set were in no small part dedicated Carbon Leaf fans. When people started yelling out requests for particular songs, the lead singer cracked a joke about GBS taking care of covering those--which made one person yell, "They won't do them as well!" I noticed more than a few guys immediately surrounding us, and the guy right in front of me was clearly heavily into the music, doing a lot of punching the air with his fist to the beat and suchlike.
I don't know Carbon Leaf's material, so I don't know the names of their songs, but I can remark that one in particular stood out for me for two reasons: the audience participation of a particular clapping rhythm, which was kind of cool, and my getting faked out by the guitarist (the one with the liquid fingers) repeatedly playing the same chord progression that starts off "Mari-Mac". In fact, when they started up that song, I thought it was "Mari-Mac"--since I knew Carbon Leaf had covered it. My more rational brain was pretty certain they wouldn't cover a song by a band for whom they were actually opening, but hey, stranger things have happened!
What really made the Carbon Leaf set for me, though, was how during the final number Alan and Séan danced across the stage behind them! They came out with their arms around one another and danced their way along from one side of the stage to the other; Dara and I both died laughing. That was the first sign we got that the B'ys were in extremely wacky humor for this particular show.
Final verdict for me on Carbon Leaf: hmm. Potential here. I should acquire one of their albums. Recommendations on albums to check out are welcome from any Carbon Leaf fans who happen to read this!
As soon as Carbon Leaf was done, a distinct shift took place in the demographic of fans clustered before the stage. Suddenly the crowd immediately around us got a lot more female--and as a result, noticeably shorter. This was a Good Thing as far as Dara and I were concerned, because it meant that those of us at Stage Alan would in fact be able to SEE Alan.
The women around us started chattering, and asking one another who was on the OKP. We started calling out our OKP handles to one another, and when I announced myself as "Anna the Piper", the fortysomething woman in front of me cried, "I wanted to meet you! I went to your web page, it was really cool!" She introduced herself as Nancy, and introduced her husband as well, and proceeded to tell the younger women around her that she highly recommended turning forty as it was an experience that taught her a lot about herself. I found that kind of cool, speaking as someone who's going to be hitting that same milestone in another five years. ;)
I saw one young woman wearing a pretty cool baby-tee type shirt: powder-blue, with five playing cards across the front with the faces of Kris, Murray, Alan, Séan, and Bob on them. I kept trying to figure out who all was a King or a Jack, but never got a good enough look at the shirt. And another girl told us she was at her very first GBS concert. We assured her she would be coming back for more.
Danny, head GBS roadie, started coming out to do all the usual instrument and mike checks. While he was doing his little twiddles on the various instruments, Dara turned to me and chirped, "This act's kind of weird!" I told her who Danny was, and we both waved frantically and yelled, "HI DANNY!" Hee.
Still too much Loud with the between-show music, though.
And I seized the opportunity to duck to the back of the crowd and lean over and ask Monica and Geri to pass me the bottle of water I had stowed under my seat--'cause I was going to need it, once GBS came out on stage.
The loudness problem continued, unfortunately, into GBS's set. If you know the material, that's okay--most of the audience up front by the stage did, and we were all singing along anyway, but. Dara told me after the show that the songs she didn't know, mostly the ones off the new album, were just as incomprehensible to her as the Carbon Leaf material. This had been a problem at the Paramount in 2002, and it was a problem here, too. Which was disappointing, since GBS shows at the Showbox had never been so hard to make out. Most of the time I could usually catch Alan's vocals and Murray generally came through well, but more than once, even while looking straight at Séan, I couldn't hear what he was singing. And I couldn't make out Bob once until he did "Helmethead".
Alan told us that this was the last show of the tour--and it kind of showed. He and Bob both looked really exhausted, and they all had a sort of wild, manic humor about them--the sort of humor you get when it's 3:30am and you've been up all night. ;) So this rolled right out into their interactions with each other and with the audience and made everything fun even aside from the loudness problem.
Bob is going for a new look, apparently! He's lost the goatee, and his hair's longer than I've seen it before. It was a bit of a shocker, since I think this might well have been the first time I've seen him without the goatee. I'm not sure it's a look that suits him now--since his face is thicker than it was in the days of "Ordinary Day". But we'll see what happens. And since Bob actually seemed to have swiped one of his alarmingly patterned shirts, Séan was almost restrained for once in a light blue Carbon Leaf shirt; this, too, was to lead to amusing post-show adventures later. Alan: form-fitting black shirt with a lot of embroidery in the front. Murray: also a light blue shirt, though damned if I could figure out what the word on it was, 'caffeine' or 'cadillac'. Kris (since we actually got to see him a couple of times as he popped out from behind his drumkit with his accordion): dark blue and black bowling shirt, as near as I can tell.
And now, the set, courtesy of my shiny new PDA stuffed conveniently into my pocket:
- Beat the Drum
- Donkey Riding
- When I'm Up
- Shines Right Through Me
- Lukey
- Something Beautiful
- Paddy Murphy
- When I Am King
- Sally Ann
- Break: "Talk amongst yourselves!", "Happy Birthday" for Séan, and Alan rags on Murray
- Penelope
- General Taylor
- Scolding Wife
- Let It Go
- I'm a Rover
- Sea of No Cares
- Helmethead
- John Barbour
- Consequence Free
- Mari-Mac
- Ordinary Day
- Encore: Boston and St. John's / Excursion Around the Bay / Fortune
- Encore #2: Old Black Rum / Rant and Roar
Because of the loudness issues during the show, a lot of what I got out of the songs was the rhythm, the behavior of the band, and the behavior of the audience.
It was weird being at a Great Big Sea show that didn't start off with "Donkey Riding". This was a disappointment to me--don't get me wrong, I like "Beat the Drum", but I think "Donkey Riding" is a stronger opening song. "Donkey Riding" coming in immediately after led to the one lesser minus of the show for me--because "Donkey Riding" sounded off. I couldn't figure out whether it was because somebody in the band was singing off-key or whether it was because most of the audience around me was; it made it hard for me to actually find the notes I wanted to hit. And see previous commentary re: not being able to make out most of the vocals. "Donkey Riding" being heavily driven by vocals, it definitely suffered for the harmonies not coming through.
On around to "When I'm Up"--and some lovely Alan goodness, with The Doyle milking every last scrap out of every syllable in that song that he could get. Made up for "Donkey Riding" being off. ;) So did the bit at the beginning, where Alan held out the "meeeeeeee!" at the end of the second-to-last line of the intro, stopped, then got the audience to jump right back in with him to keep the "meeeeeeeee!" going. Hee!
"Shines Right Through Me"--I really like this one, even if half the time I go straight to "When I Am King" when I listen to Something Beautiful*. There's just something about the line "I look at you and it shines right through me" that I really love--and I turned and sang it to Dara at my side. Alan broke out his black electric guitar for this one, which was fun! I hadn't seen an electric in Alan's hands before, and he was clearly having fun rocking it up.
It was probably here, though I must admit that I do not precisely remember, that Alan did the obligatory hawking of Something Beautiful* and informed us that it was possibly the best album ever released in the history of music. Hee.
"Lukey" came in as the first of the Vertical Movement songs, and I realized for the first time that even if you're not necessarily paying active attention, if everyone else around you is engaging in Vertical Movement you pretty much are going to find yourself doing it too. ;) The fun and tricky part is trying to figure out how to do it without stepping on your neighbor's feet or smacking your neighbor's back with your arms, and that got a little challenging for me; my right arm twinged a couple of times, as I put it through a bit more activity than it's had in some time! In the meantime, watching Alan during the second bridge of this ditty was fun; he kept jumping around pointing at people to cue them for their solos, Murray to Kris to Séan and back again. I managed to catch the final "daaaaaay" chord, but only because I was listening hard for it.
"Something Beautiful"--since this was the first of the softer songs played it got easier to make out Alan's vocals. Which was good, because, well, Alan's vocals. He delivered a swoonworthy performance on this one, and towards the end of it I heard someone groan in pleasure: me. Siiiiigh! :)
"Paddy Murphy"--GBS once again demonstrated their affection for Seattle with this one. Séan cracked a joke about the fish-throwers in Pike Place Market, and how in Newfoundland they don't throw the fish, they just catch and eat them. He also joked about the fish-throwers reminding him of Lou Zealand from The Muppet Show--but he didn't remember the name of the Muppet in question. So he started off singing "Ohhhh the night that Paddy Murphy died is a night I'll never forget! All the fish-throwin' guys got loaded drunk--" Then Alan cut him off and leaned over to whisper in his ear and inform him the name he wanted was Lou Zeland. ;) So Séan started up again to swap that name in there, which was funny. So was the way everybody wound up singing the intro of the song, in a sort of flowy, steady rhythm that was a bit of a switch from how I've seen him deliver that intro in the past. Much Funny, there.
The bridge of "Paddy Murphy" also stood out for me as I noted Alan playing the first half on his bouzouki, and then Bob answering him on the accordion with the second half, as opposed to both of them playing the whole bridge together. That was a bit different and fun for my ear, long accustomed to hearing the recorded versions.
I'm pretty sure, thinking back on it (I'm still fairly fried as I write this), that it must have been either just before "Paddy Murphy" or just after where Séan held up a bouquet of flowers someone had given him in honor of his birthday. This had the expected delighted audience reaction.
"When I Am King"--with Alan introducing this one by talking about how he'd written a song about all the things he would do if he were king. Out came the electric again; more fun with Alan rocking it up. Though again, hard to make out much besides the rhythm, so close to the stage. I noticed Bob did not whip out any bagpipes. Another minor disappointment, but just enough to make me go "aww" rather than anything that actually hurt the show. The guitars carried the melody of the bridge where the bagpipe usually plays on the album track, and quite well. (This makes me wonder if Bob was too exhausted to break out the bagpipes, or something; I haven't read, as of this writing, whether they made an appearance on any of the earlier shows of this tour.)
"Sally Ann"--this is not one of my repeat listens off the new album; I don't care too much for it. But that said, my opinion of this song went up when I heard that Alan had actually written it for his two-year-old niece. On first listen, you can't tell that; I certainly had no idea the song was about a little girl. The lyrics give a heavy impression of being about an adult girl. But once you know the song is about a child, its whole character changes. That I couldn't pick this out without that crucial piece of information is something that makes me think a moment and wonder whether it's indicative of someone who's raised on American music, or whether it's just the song. Nothing in particular stood out for me during this ditty; I took a chance to just settle down a bit and try to get my breath and my voice and my strength back.
After that one, the band took a sudden and (at least from my vantage point) inexplicable break back by Kris' drumkit. Alan cast a wry glance out into the audience and told us to talk amongst ourselves, then they stepped back by the drums. I'm pretty sure they were back there belting back Guinness, which I'm absolutely certain was a major contributing factor in what happened next as well as the hijinx a couple of songs later.
A couple of guys to my right in the crowd by the stage started bellowing out "Happy Birthday"--not particularly tunefully, but hey, it's the thought that counts! So that led to everybody else chiming in, which gave us the pleasure of Séan looking slightly startled and then touched at the gesture.
Then the boys came back to their instruments--and Alan started introducing everyone. It seems pretty clear to me at this point that Murray's settled in well as the new bass player--because he's starting to get the same jokes made about him in introductions that Darrell did. ;) This time, we were informed that Murray "lost his virginity on this tour". Muahaha!
Next up, "Penelope". Not one of my faves off of Sea of No Cares, but there was something pretty damned fine about this concert's performance of it--and that was Alan doing the instrumental bridges on his guitar. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I want to play like Alan Doyle when I grow up. Because, well, WOW.
Danny coming out and taking away all the instruments clued me in that "General Taylor" was probably next. But at least for a moment or two I wasn't sure--because the boys of Carbon Leaf came back out on the stage, armed with a big ol' bottle of some form of alcohol. It turned out that they were going to celebrate Séan's birthday in their own inimitable fashion, and boy howdy did they ever. Carbon Leaf's lead singer started in on an improvised version of the first verse--"Well General McCann, he gained the day"--and that sent Séan off on doing a lot of flexing of his muscles in the middle of the stage, and faking Napoleon's classic pose by sticking his hand under an imaginary topcoat, before he came back forward to lead the rest of the song himself. So there we were with ten guys all belting out the lyrics to "General Taylor", and naturally everybody in the audience jumped in too. One of the other Carbon Leaf boys (Carter, I'm fairly sure it was now, now that I know that one's name!) kept belting back the contents of the bottle he'd brought out as we all sang, and he kept singing too. And if that wasn't enough, Alan and Carter were hanging onto one another in highly and suggestively entertaining ways at several points during the song as well. It was a moment of beauty, and the best damned rendition of "General Taylor" I'd ever seen.
"Scolding Wife"! I hadn't been actively expecting this one, but it's still new enough to me at a GBS show that I groove hardcore on hearing them do it live. This was one of the songs where the vocals actually came through, and one of the moments where we got to hear Murray and Bob both fairly clearly. And naturally, everybody screamed in delight when Séan got to his verse about being thrown naked on the floor. ;>
"Let It Go" has become something of a theme song for me for when I'm really stressed out, and so for that reason I do like it a lot. But this was another point during the show where I made out enough of the song to know what it was, but little else. So I don't have much of an idea of how it sounded during this performance, sadly.
Just before "I'm a Rover" Alan got mischievous again--and informed the gentlemen of the house that they were now going to do a song for the ladies. And then he added to those of us of the female persuasion, "Ladies of the greater Seattle area, there are rovers among you. Rovers with no professional obligations tomorrow." Talk about your blanket invitation to commit acts of deviltry, neh? ;> But this was another loud song--so very little came through of the actual song but the noise. I kept getting bits of Bob's fiddle as it stood out above the rest of the instruments, but not much else. I have practically no impression at all of the vocals getting through.
I think it might have been just before "Sea of No Cares" that we had a bit of Alan having to police the audience, which was a very rowdy audience indeed this time around. A couple of guys in particular kept screaming "GO FLAMES GO!" at random points all throughout the show; they kept moving around, too. Dara and I noticed them initially to our right, and eventually they wound up by the stage up on the left. They started getting loud enough and annoying enough that Alan finally shot them down--but in that devastatingly polite fashion that seems to be so very Canadian. He pointed them out, encouraged the audience to give it up for the Flames, and then to give it up for not having to hear the gentlemen's opinion on the matter anymore. Fortunately, this did in fact shut them up.
Yet again, though, the song kind of vanished in the overall wash of noise. I remember being a trifle confused on the opening measures just trying to figure out what the heck they'd launched into--but at that point it was all rhythm. And I could almost hear myself singing better than I could hear the B'ys, which was kind of impressive, given that I was already hoarse by then and not able to sing very loudly at all. It was like I was in a box made out of noise, or perhaps a box of quiet in the middle of a huge wave of noise, and only the stuff right in the box was getting to my ears.
"Helmethead" registered better--I'd been waiting for this one just for the extra squeal I'd had cued up for the sake of Bob singing lead on something. And as pretty much expected, the band got to rile up the audience and make with the requisite audience participation in the form of everybody screaming "FARE THEE WELL" in the choruses. See aforementioned commentary re: box of noise, though. I heard my own voice following the melody better than I heard anything else besides Bob.
After that, finally, "John Barbour". The box of noise dissolved some--and we could hear Séan. He made it worth it. Lots of people around me, as well as I myself, sang along with him. Yes, this means I'm one of those GBS fans who has to sing along with everything--but the trick I try for is to sing softly enough that I can actually still hear the singing on the stage. It is very, very difficult to not sing this music, and this song was especially irresistible to me since it had been haunting me all week. Other things I noticed during this song--both Séan's guitar and Alan's bouzouki were capoed on the third fret, which was a visual confirmation of
kathrynt and I having figured out that the song is in B flat. I also noted that Alan did in fact have his bouzouki for this ditty. But it had only occurred to me a few days prior to the show that Séan does in fact sing this entire song by himself. I can't think of a single other GBS ditty where only one of them sings all the way through.Back into the box of noise for "Consequence Free", "Mari-Mac", and "Ordinary Day"--and a lot of audience singing carrying lots of parts of the last of these. Lots of Alan leaning out from his front-man vantage point and grinning down at us as he played.
The first "GREAT! BIG! SEA!" chant to get the B'ys back out seemed to pick up an extra syllable, and came out "GREAT, BIG, SEA, HEY!"
Encore round #1: Alan's liquid solo performance of "Boston and St. John's"--and more very soft audience singing backing him up. Lovely, lovely guitar work. "Excursion Around the Bay", which is still odd to me sung by Alan, but Séan's bodhran was full of rhythm and fire, and the audience was all about the punching of fists into the air and the bellowing of "HEY!" at the end of every chorus. And then "Fortune"--which was a little surprising to me. I'd expected them to do "Chafe's Ceilidh" for the obligatory instrumental. But maybe "Fortune" can arguably be called a better concert number since it does have that vocal bit in the middle, and it's very fun indeed to bellow out "FORTY-FIVE FROM CARBONEAR!"
Encore round #2: "If you ever come to St. John's, beware of the old black rum!" I'd expected this as an encore, but again--too much Loud. :( Which bummed me out; I could barely follow even the rhythm at that point. It wasn't the same hugely complicated arrangement that they did at the tail end of the concert on the Great Big DVD; it was closer to the Road Rage arrangement, complete with "And I drank sixteen doubles for the price of ooooooooooone!" at the end. After that--the instruments fell out and we could FINALLY hear all the boys singing again as they belted out an a capella "Rant and Roar".
Alan told us Seattle is a spectacular city, and that we're always good to GBS when they're here, and cried, "Ask us back!"
Well, duh. Like this is going to be a problem? ;)
This post is already huge--and I am positively exhausted. So I am going to cut this off here and go ahead and post it to LJ; tomorrow, I will follow up with the post-show hijinx and the tale of how Anna Was Teased By the Shanty Man!
