Great Big Sea At Ann Arbor, The Review

Greetings, Gentle Readers.

As promised, here is the review of the Great Big Sea show in Ann Arbor. Please note that this will be VERY long, the review was 4 pages in Word and I'm going to be adding pics and video to it too.

First up, we had dinner at Conor O'Neill's Traditional Irish Pub in Ann Arbor, and we met up with a bunch of folks from the Great Big Sea online community, known as the Online Kitchen Party, or OKP. I got a picture of all of us, and here it is:

From left to right, that's John, Phoebe's husband, me (in the purple shirt), Maura (on the lap!) and Phoebe in the front row. In the back, L to R, that's Brianna, the daughter of the woman in the middle, Marianne, and last but not least, the Chief Fool. Doesn't Maura have the prettiest blue eyes? They were the first thing I noticed about her.

Then, we went on to the concert, where I saw ChiTownKim but didn't have the chance to introduce myself, and met a few other folks from the OKP, who hadn't come from the forum. Everybody seems either pleased or surprised, sometimes both, when I introduce myself. I am not sure whether this is good or bad, but at least nobody's drawn away in horror yet! I didn't see Lynda, nor get a chance to introduce myself (and had a repeat at the Minneapolis show too, by the way).

At the concert we were joined by Theresa, the Chief Fool's friend from her PhD program. The pic below is of the two of them waiting (in the rain, and the cold, for a solid hour . . . I didn't mention this elsewhere because it was just too public, but here I can. I don't want to make anybody feel guilty, hence the enormous discretion. But we didn't learn the b'y's were asleep in the tour bus until we'd waited for them half an hour. In the rain. In the cold. In the dark. I've been charged with writing the lyrics to a song about Super Fans, who do this sort of thing. We stayed an exact hour out there, I'm surprised none of us have pneumonia!! Granted, the last half hour was us having fun on our own -- we don't need no stinkin' Newfoundlanders! but still. You just know certain people, if they ever find out about this, will never be able to let it go. So, discretion.).

Anyway, here's the Chief Fool and Theresa. As per usual, I am behind the camera.

Felt kind of bad for them both, really. CF had brought Robin Hood and a CD to get signed, and Theresa was hoping to get the CD signed that she'd bought during intermission. Oh well.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Here is the actual show review, with pics and so on interspersed:

           How was the show? In a word, astounding. If somebody came to me right now and said, ‘How was the show last night? But I haven’t got all day, so can you sum it up in one word?’ that’s what I would say. Astounding. 

            1^st of all, I would like to state for the record that my ears were ringing until I finally went to bed at 5am. (And also for the record, they had quit ringing by the time I woke up 6 hours later). 5am!? Well, yeah. After the concert self and the Chief Fool (and the Chief Fool’s friend, who was a Great Big Virgin at last night’s concert but no more, by the way, at intermission she was buying CD’s and she has fallen in love with the music, score one for the Newfoundlanders!) went out for coffee and met up with some of the CF’s friends that live in Ann Arbor. I don’t suppose that we would have gone out save for two things: 1) The King, towards the end of the concert, ordered the audience to go ye and party hearty after the show, because Ann Arbor truly is a party town with bars, taverns, and places to stop and get a bite of something on every corner (and he wouldn’t be able to do it himself, what with their schedule and all, so we were lifting a glass in their stead), and 2) we’d waited for a bit after the show by the tour bus for autographs and whatnot and the weather turned while the b’y’s were playing and it was cold and very wet while waiting, raining heavily. So the Chief Fool, the Chief Fool’s friend and myself were re-enacting the beginning of The Rover (‘let me in, love, it’s raining out there and my hair is dripping with cold rain’), so it was coffee, chili, and cheese fries for afters instead of beer, whisky and pub grub. That’s what you get after a show in late October up here, you never know when the weather is going to turn at last. The day was gorgeous, sunny but not bright and almost spring-like temps, but the night, after about 10:30pm, decided that it couldn’t be having any of that! We found ourselves hoping that the Fabulous Five had sweaters and rain slickers in their luggage. It was still raining when I got up the next morning. 

            After going out we had a 2 hour drive home, but in between we had to look for my wedding band and engagement ring, which (due to my weight loss) would have been dangerous to wear during the show (flying diamonds, anybody?) – they are that loose right now, and I haven’t had time to get them re-sized, so I put them on my necklace. Unfortunately for me, when getting out of my concert-going attire in the parking ramp after the show, the necklace came undone and while itself managed to stay around my neck, nevertheless the rings slid off and, unnoticed, fell to the concrete. And there they stayed until we were able to go back for them! They’re not heavy or ornate and I didn’t notice the loss until we’d gone to eat.

            (Thankfully, my wedding band etc fell off in the parking ramp near the Michigan, and thankfully we did indeed find them there, otherwise I was perfectly prepared to start combing the area around the tour bus, where we were hoping for some personal interaction -- if you remember the beginning of this tale . . . which was where we last saw my wedding band and engagement rings.  . .  and I can’t imagine that the b’y’s would have been too pleased to see a couple of fans grubbing about in the dirt and shrubberies outside of their tour bus at almost 2am. And I’m sure they would not have believed our explanation! But if it had meant getting my wedding rings back, I’d face any wrath . . .I live in Minnesota, remember, on no account was I willing to leave them lie in Ann Arbor somewhere!!! But all’s well that ends well. I got my rings back and we did not, in point of fact, ever have to disturb those hard-working Newfoundlanders. Another fan did, knocking on the tour bus door, but we were already walking away by then, we had nothing to do with that.) 

            As for the show itself, well, t’was astounding. The Michigan Theatre venue, for one thing, is gorgeous, beautifully restored and really worth taking a second and third look. I am a bit of a historic theatre buff (just a bit . . . ) and so the Chief Fool and I had gone out there round about lunch time on Tuesday, the day before, to spend the day in Ann Arbor and to look at the theatre – and boy, am I glad we did. We got a tour by one of the gents there who was working on it, the Fool got to play their organ (she being of a musical persuasion), and I got about a dozen pictures of the plaster work and the restored wood panels and so on. We got to get backstage, as far as the back wall of the stage itself – we did not go in the dressing rooms or any of that – and they showed us their fly systems and the rows of lights hanging on the battens and so on. They were able to do this because the GBS stuff hadn’t yet loaded in, a nice circumstance. We were able to see some of the historic old back stage communication devices and that was fricking amazing too. Not only what they were, but that the Michigan had kept them around in situ all these years. I mean, I’ve only seen this stuff in black and white drawings in books until yesterday. . . 

            Because of the restoration of the theatre, which so far has taken about 30 years, the sound in that place is phenomenal. The acoustics of the live music were  . . . spectacular. Twice during the b’y’s show I put my hand up on the wall (that’s where our seats were, on the outside aisles, so I could do that) and I could feel the resonances thrumming, just incredible. You could also feel them through the floor, and I found it fascinating that the floor was vibrating at a different rate than the walls. 

         
The sound itself, once it had seeped into the plaster walls, eventually began to roll back and forth between the two side walls of the house, something I have heard about but never personally experienced until last night. Naturally, this enhanced what the gents were doing and they sounded astonishingly good. So good, in fact, that I seriously think that they ought to fly all their audiences from this point on to the Michigan so that everybody can hear what we heard last night, it was that good.

The above is a video of the end of Long Life and the very beginning of Love Me Tonight, the second video had problems uploading, so here's the link --  you can watch it on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6fRgRgfXZY

            Sean was in fine form – in every way -- last night (and I like the new very short haircut, it gives his eyes and face more emphasis), helped along by the fact that here in Michigan there is actually a candidate running for the state legislature who really is named Sean McCann, so one of the folks in the front row (or possibly the 2^nd or 3^rd rows back, but close, anyway) brought along a campaign yard sign for GBS’ Sean, who seemed delighted with it. Later we saw it being loaded onto the bus, lol! He sang quite a lot of songs but the one I remember – and will never forget – is Safe Upon The Shore. All y’all who don’t like it really needed to be here for this rendering, because it was extraordinary. His voice sounded lovely and the harmonies on the chorus were SO GOOD. I mean, I keep saying that, but it’s that true. The harmonics of the house gave some significant depth to the bottom voices and they also rounded and lifted the top notes. Combined, well, I just sat down, closed my eye and listened. And got goosebumps. It was the first moment of the night that was a religious experience, but not the last. 

            The guys gave us quite a lot of new music from SAFE, including Wandering Ways in the encore, which I enjoyed tremendously. I don’t remember all of the set list but things started off with The Chemical Worker’s Song (which I usually hate, it doesn’t matter who sings it – I’ve heard close to a dozen different versions but never GBS until this night)  . . . and I actually liked it enough to not wince, which is huge for me. It’s my husband’s favorite, though, and he’s very excited to hear it when we go to the Minneapolis show on Saturday. He is so pleased that it’s in the line-up, and I am pleased for him! 

            We also got Captain Kidd second,  -- here's the YouTube link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYeyCveR6MI (the last 17 seconds of Process Man too, sorry about the picture quality, just listen to it, it's about the sound, not the visuals)

Hit The Ground and Run in the 2^nd half (another religious experience, but in a totally different way!) and last, but not least – literally, it was the 3^rd and final encore – Straight to Hell. All of them in the same concert? I can die a happy woman.

I am ashamed to relate that I yipped in excitement when I heard the opening chords to Straight to Hell and did so loudly enough (we were in the 5^th row, I’ve never been that close!) to throw the King, just for a split second. Oops. Sorry, your Majesty! I didn’t realize how loud I was. That one and Road to Ruin vy for the top spot in my personal favorite song line-up. If you ever hear a female voice squealing ‘Yay!’ at the beginning of Straight to Hell, it will be me. I can’t help it, I yip every time. Normally I yip pretty much with the first actual chord, but I was tired too, it was at the end of virtually 3 whole hours of music, and my brain wasn’t running quite at 100%. I didn’t recognize Straight to Hell right away, it took a few measures, hence the odd placement of the yip. Mea culpa. 

            Murray laid down some lovely bass during Lukey’s Boat and also during the first encore, working with Kris to provide a really nice groove, driven but not overwhelming. Alan remarked that it sounded like a slow 70’s tune, ‘like something Barry White might do’ and that was it, we were off to the races. Murray gave us his best Barry impersonation and things went from there. I thought for sure we were going to get Run, Runaway but they chose something else and now I can’t remember what. Surely somebody else will know!

            During the show Sean and Alan were having some minor cable issues and made some slightly bawdy remarks about it, but nothing too raunchy. Just at the beginning of the second half Alan had guitar issues (it –looked- as though he was having a catastrophic amp. fail) and had to have Britt come out to fix the problem, busking the entire time – he didn’t know what was going on, or at least, it seemed that way. The house held their collective breath, ‘cause like I said, it looked like it could have been very bad, but the other 4 guys knew better and did not look at all alarmed. 

            Britt pushed the ‘on’ button on Alan’s pedal board and the show continued. I did snicker at that, not at Alan, but because I have made the same stupid mistake (and it felt familiar), except in my case I was stage managing a show and the house and show lights were on two different boards, well, the house manager said their little speech, the house lights went down . . . and the actors began to come on stage in total darkness, which wasn’t supposed to happen, saying their lines in the dark and all. I had forgotten to turn the other board on during my pre-show check. So, when I pushed the button for the first cue, nothing. I nochalantly turned the board on and went directly to the second lighting cue as though nothing had happened. I don’t think anybody noticed, haha. ‘On’ buttons can be pesky little things. You’d think that as adults who have been turning things on and off our whole lives, we’d be able to do it, but sometimes . . . otherwise Alan was in a very good mood and showed up onstage looking dashing in jeans, that dark blue and black striped button down shirt he has and his black blazer. The blazer came off for the second half, lol. He did a beautiful rendition of River Driver, enhanced by the Michigan’s acoustics, and never really slowed down, because the energy was still high even through Yankee Sailor and River Driver and so on. 

            Bob’s low whistle during England always makes the hair on my arms and neck stand up (in the best of ways!!!) and last night was no exception. I was actually shivering, yeah, it was that good. Ooohh. Yikes. And I was very pleased to see him actually open his mouth more than a few times and talk here and there, we’ll have him cracking jokes yet! He gave an interesting little historical anecdote about where Yankee Sailor came from (“my grandmother had 6 daughters, by the end of the war, 5 had gone away with Americans”). He was smiling quite a lot too, always nice to see, he’s got a great one. Alan mentioned the book, but only in passing, and they did have it for sale at the merch table (nice swag, too, by the by . . .even if we’re still waiting on bumper stickers . . . The Chief Fool got a gbs pin and a copy of Bob’s book) though by the end of the night I didn’t see any copies of Writing Out The Notes left, so if you want one, best to get it either before the show or at intermission. 

            Bob sang Helmethead and he decided that he liked the verse that starts ‘Nancy couldn’t watch me fight’ so well that he sang it twice. But that was completely ok, everybody went with it, it was that kind of night. I did see a look or two exchanged on stage, but it seemed more along the lines of ‘Oh, ok’ rather than ‘uh-oh’, so, not a big deal. Anyhow Bob could sing the phone book and I’d listen, so there you go! 

            Seats were fabulous, very nice for my eye, though I still had to stand in the aisle to get the right angle for watching, and we made it behind the theatre and out to the tour bus in record time, we got there even before Murray and Kris did! But the b’y’s, having been going like bats out of hell for the previous 48 hours straight, traveling and doing promos and whatnot, had gone straight to the bus and fallen on their faces in their bunks, so no pics or autographs, which was fine by us. The Chief Fool and I do not feel slighted in the least. They have to sleep sometime!!! Actually, we would have been more concerned if they hadn’t gone and done what they needed to do. 

We were, however, disgusted to see fans taking pictures in the front of the bus while using the flash with their cameras. Honestly. Nothing like lighting up the interior of the bus – where people are trying to sleep!!! – in order to get your pictures. How very rude. Even worse was the female fan with her boyfriend/husband who actually came up to the bus considerably later in the night and, despite us telling her that they were in bed and to go away (we were polite but firm), actually KNOCKED ON THE TOUR BUS DOOR. Damn. Rude, rude, rude. We couldn’t believe it, but we all saw it. We also saw Murray open the door, stick his head out and politely tell her to bugger off, too. He shouldn’t have had to do that. Holy crap. I was, quite frankly, appalled at some of the fan behavior I saw, and would never have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. It’s a wonder to me that the gents put up with it. 

            We had to go by the tour bus on our way out of town to get back to Kalamazoo and to our surprise it was still there at 2am, so I suppose they were taking advantage of the fact that Kent was only a 4ish hour drive from Ann Arbor, allowing it to stay put so that nobody had to sleep on a moving vehicle for a while.

            We all had a great time, the band included! It was a great night in Ann Arbor. 

I have two pictures that turned out, here they are. The first was taken during intermission, the second, with a flash (oops, the Chief Fool didn't know how to use my camera and flashed the b'y's by mistake) during the opening of Straight To Hell. 

The guy on the stage is one of the techs. Not one of the band. I didn't recognize him, probably a local, it wasn't Britt either.