While the Vogue theatre is a versatile, long-serving and at times rocking venue, the Chilliwack Cultural Centre has an air of 'proper' about it. Designed for musical theatre it seems, the idea of a rowdy show like Alan in this pretty, clean and new seated venue seems a little out of the ordinary. Guaranteed, however, that this venue will have a lot more sound in it's walls after a show like Alan.
We arrived kind of early and drove by the venue as a starting place to then go find somewhere to eat. As soon as we got on the road where the centre was, we saw part of the band (Cory Tetford, Kris MacFarlane and Todd Lumley) walking away. We turned around in the parking lot, drove by them again and soon found ourselves a cute pub. As we got out of the car we saw the crew walking up the road nearby, I'd venture they were headed to the local music store, Long and McQuade.
Heading back to the theater we split up and grabbed refreshments, I headed to the merch table and picked up a signed drum head. It's a pretty wicked looking piece of merch and there were only 5 left. The nice guy selling the items remembered me from last night and told me about the party they'd had after. Sounded like a rough night for all involved. They partied hard in a hotel that Scott Grimes rented, got on the bus and arrived in Chilliwack (only an hour and a half - 2 hours from Vancouver) early in the morning. After the way the band played last night and the late night, it would be unreasonable to expect a repeat performance of the magic that had happened on Friday night. Sure that it would still be a great show but Friday had been special in a lot of ways.
We headed in and found our seats, which was an easy task. I'd managed to secure front row. I at first thought that we would be on the Cory side. After meeting him before the show the previous day and then ending up in front of him last night, I was a little worried about coming off the stalker, but our seats were on the opposite side nearer to Kendel. We got settled and waited for the action.
Like the previous night, Alan entered the stage alone and sang the same song, Dream of Home before the band joined him for the great warm-up tune, I Can't Dance Without You. The first GBS tune he did elicited a noisy fan reaction as he sang, 'I am the fountain of affection,' and then paused after the large reaction joking, I'm almost afraid to sing the next part" before continuing with 'I am the instrument of joy' and kicking into the high energy, crowd-pleasing song.
It didn't' take long for Alan to lament that he hadn't even done a show in Chilliwack before and I kind of agreed with him when he said that it was kind of unusual. Chilliwack is only about 2 hours from Vancouver, so I guess it would seem a little redundant to do shows that close together, however this show was a sellout and I'd be pretty sure he could sell out Chilliwack or Abbtosford, the city just west which is a little bigger population wise (and my previous hometown).
Alan had a guest in the audience that he'd known since he was a kid, she was sitting front row on the other end. The group must have been from Newfoundland and it was her mother's birthday. After singing Happy Birthday to her, Alan got down on his knees and presented her with a So Let's Go mug singed by the band. Super sweet.
Alan and his Beautiful Gypsies rolled through the first set and about 4 or 5 songs in I started to feel that, although this show was great, last night just felt different. The Chillwack crowd was a little loathe to stand and get involved. Alan's stories were there, but not quite the same as the ones last night. As this is my first set of concerts that were back to back I was surprised and impressed with the bands (particularly Cory Tetford's) ability to laugh at Alan's jokes like it was the first time he'd heard them. However, there were less jokes and less stories tonight as we got through to Hit The Ground And Run, after which Alan ordered us to the lobby for 2 drinks since it's Saturday night.
Unfortunately, not long into the intermission they ran out of cold beer. Sacrilege. However, the Chilliwack Cultural Centre is a basically brand new venue and one thing they did right: Bathrooms. Bathrooms as far as the eye can see.
We settled back in for the 2nd half and I had a little pang of sadness without Scott Grimes to open it up, but that's reality. Wave Over Wave elicited a singing crowd but the group was hesitant to stand and dance in their shiny new building. A fun interjection by Alan was admitting his favorite verse was the one containing the lyrics, 'And when the works over the whiskey we'll pour' making it obvious that he was talking about that line in particular. While the set list trucked along the same, Stay was swapped for Sins of Saturday Night, which was appropriate as it was indeed Saturday.
The transition between Shine On and So Let's Go went a little smoother tonight but I think they're going to have to do something about that pairing. The amount of changes that Kris has to do is just too time-consuming. There were no stops in the second set with Alan doing his thanking and talking over the introductions of songs. They finished with Ordinary Day once again and the band left the stage.
The band returned together this time for the encore and Alan made a beeline to the mic calling "When I say 1, 2 you say 3, 4! 1! 2!" And the front couple rows yelled back "3! 4!". He paused, smiled and knew right away, his mic wasn't on. "I feel like the speakers are not working." The guitar was hot, Kendel's mic worked and she offered hers. Taking it in the most un-rock-star fashion anyone could he stepped aside and asked loudly toward the sound booth "Are you trying to tell me something?" Todd started to bring his up from the back but Alan's switched in and so he backed up holding the crowd saying, "One second." He backed up like he was just coming back on and started again. This time he got the crowd response he was used to and launched into 1-2-3-4.
It seemed during this song he got a message from off stage as I noticed a nod of understanding and he undertook the rest of the encore without any lengthy introductions like he'd done the night before.
The second encore was Don't Like to Dance which he said was a special request, "It's for you." the crowd enjoyed the song while sitting and was grateful. Alan unleashed Cory into an improvised solo over the final chords where he sang some amazing part phrases and rock tinged 'oh's'. After this song the band turned to leave the stage and my friend that came with me (who hadn't been at the Friday show) turned and asked, "Is that it?" I told her quickly that there would probably be one more acapella number. I could see on the stage the set list had 3 lines after the bolded and underlined set 2 finale so unless something was cut, we had another song. She told me later that she didn't feel like he needed to sing more, but she didn't want it to be over.
As the night before, he finished with Where I Belong. And after a few nights of abuse, hard partying and little sleep the rawness showed. He was still pitch perfect but performed it in a lower key than the night before (the alternate key he sometimes does it in) and as he quieted for the last few words his voice graveled out to hardly a whisper. Friday night he had stepped off mic to sing this beautiful ballad but tonight he stayed amplified. He thanked the crowd and headed off the stage. I hung around after for a few minutes while they did the take-down. The tour manager, Andy, was out again taking stuff down. I was kind of looking for a pick since they were designed for this tour. Andy had given me a set list the night before and I didn't want to be a hog, but I'd gladly take it. There were some girls next to me, he grabbed a set list for one of them and then doubled back to get another one and brought it to me. I hope that I didn't come off ungrateful as I said that he'd given me one last night. There was a lady next to me that wanted one and I kind of motioned to her. He said there were more and so I gladly took the one he was offering and asked for a pick too. Of course he produced one for me and I left extremely happy.
During the show he had told the group that he'd be out signing afterwards. The lobby is quite large at the venue so it made sense. It wasn't long after the show that he came out wearing a toque and set up near the bar to do a little meet and greet. I am always so impressed with his patience and willingness to work his way though a huge line of fans signing and smiling.
I was at this show with my 2 friends from last night, another Chilliwack friend that was on the receiving end of my other buddy backing out and a couple that also live in Chilliwack that are good friends of mine. I stood in line with the person I had taken to the show and she was chatting with another friend of hers who was further up the large, doubled back on itself, line. The friend asked if we could take a photo for her when she got to the front. She hadn't brought any kind of photo device, but she had a book for Alan to sign. She'd also bought 'So Let's Go' from the merch table. I volunteered with my SLR and as she got close I headed up with her and snapped a few photos of Alan and her and Alan signing her book. He saw the CD and took that too, popping it open with a pick and also gladly doing that. I went back to my friend who had also another acquaintance in line she knew that was right near us. As we got to the front I took photos for them too and then almost got skipped for my own time with Alan. I had my Robin Hood cover that Scott Grimes had signed the night before plus the Boy on Bridge DVD that I'd bought Friday as well. I handed him the Robin Hood on top of the DVD and he just went ahead and did both. So happy. We were almost at the end of the line and my remaining 4 friends were right near the back. I went and chatted with them and then was photographer for them all as well as they went through the meet and greet process.
While I was waiting for them to get to Alan I had noticed that Cory was hanging around the lobby as well. Knowing my chance to redeem my mis-step the previous day I went over and started chatting with him. He remembered the night before and meeting outside the theatre. I told him I was so happy he was with Alan on tour and he said he had a busy couple of months coming, going on our with Kendel, Dustin Bentall and Barney Bentall after they do Chicago on this tour. He also talked about the party last night and that he didn't even know where they went, he woke up in Chillwack this morning. He was looking forward to sleeping on the bus and we had a chat about how much it sucks to wake up before you get to your destination. I told him to try that drive through the Rockies with a bus full of band students (like I've done many times before as a band teacher). Like a true touring artist he asked, "Sitting up?" I laughed at him, "Yep." He didn't want any part of that. I told him I'd spent the whole day kicking myself for not getting a photo with him the night before and he was happy to do that for me. I didn't have anything for him to sign but we chatted a few minutes longer before I had to go be photographer again. Of course, upon arrival at home I realized that I had the set list in the box with the drum head. That would have worked really well for Cory to sign. Next time I guess.
Anyway, an amazing pair of shows from a great band. After our late night and drive home factoring in the time change, we got just under 4 hours of sleep before I had to drive my friends to the airport so they could fly over the band and meet them again in Calgary.
Can't wait until next time.
Highlights: Meet and greet, Shine On, Don't Like To Dance, redemption for a photo with Cory, encore mic problems.
Lowlights: It had to end.
Setlist:
- Dream of Home
- Can’t Dance Without You
- When I’m Up
- My Day
- Where the Nightengales Sing
- Sea of No Cares
- My Kingdom
- The Night Loves Us
- Lukey
- Laying Down to Perish
- Dance Dance
- Hit The Ground and Run
Intermission - Wave Over Wave
- Shine On
- So Let’s Go
- I’ve Seen A Little
- Sins of Saturday Night
- Old Black Rum
- Paper In Fire
- Run Runaway
- Testify
- Ordinary Day
Encore - 1-2-3-4
- Don't Like To Dance
- Where I Belong
Created with flickr slideshow.
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