(no subject)
For Theri's benefit (although she's heard all this already)...
Last week I went to Bluebird North at Richard's on Richards in Vancouver. Yup, the infamous "Dick's on Dicks *g* For you non-Vancouverites, the club's on Richards Street. It was a terrific line-up. Hosted by Shari Ulrich and Blair Packham, with Bill Henderson, Danny Michel, Sarah Slean, Neil Osborne of 54-40, Choclair (ok, I wasn't overly thrilled with him), and Damhnait Doyle. The place was absolutley packed, and there were a lot of industry people there, according to the performers, who made sure to point them all out. The Canadian heads of Sony and Warner Music, for instance. Also, Paul Myers was there. He's the guy who wrote the book, "Public Stunts,Private Stories" about the Barenaked Ladies. He's also a musician and movie critic.
I talked my friend Steve into going. Hubby had a rehearsal, but he wouldn't have gone anyway. He's a Jazz Snob™ after all. ;-) We weren't sure if the club had food, and since it was an early (8 pm) show, neither of us had had time to get dinner. Once inside we found out that they don't have food, so we decided that Steve would run out to grab us some food, while I held our table. Shari Ulrich happened to be getting ready and she heard us so she said to Steve, "Yeah, go be the hunter-gatherer." Steve left....and came back within 2 minutes. No outside food allowed. Damn. Shari came back and asked us if we had gotten food, and we explained that no food was allowed in the house. She said "There's food backstage. Most of the performers already went out for dinner, so you're welcome to our food." We were really touched, but turned it down. So a little later she comes back, with her hand behind her back. And she puts something on our table. It was crackers and cheese, wrapped up in napkins, so the staff wouldn't see it! heh...she's really sweet. And very funny.
The first half was Shari, Bill Henderson (they worked together a lot in the '80's), Damhnait Doyle and Neil Osborne. It was terrific. Poor Damhnait, though. She explained that she had left all her things (including the guitar) by the radiator in the hotel room...and the radiator leaked. She thought that the guitar was OK, but she showed us that after it dried a little, the finish all around the edge was bubbled and when she tried to play, she discovered the pick-up was ruined as well. She ended up borrowing Shari's guitar. Her record comes out this week, and she said, "I'm fuckin' begging you to buy it, because now I have to buy my friend a new guitar." It wasn't her guitar! Ack! After Shari lent her a guitar, Damhnait said, "I just wanna try all the Gibsons on stage tonight - see what else I can ruin." :-(
Neil did songs from the upcoming 54-40 record, although he did them on acoustic. They sound great.
The second half was the one most people obviously came to see. Sarah, Danny, Choclair and Blair. Our table was directly in line with Sarah and Danny - yum. Sarah had the largest crowd, for sure. She's got a lot of male fans, who pretty much just stood at the side of the stage and stared at her. ;-)
Sarah: "This place sure doesn't suck." She did an amazing song that was a tribute to Judy Garland. Absolutely beautiful, and a true "pin-drop" moment. It's the kind of song, and it was the kind of performance where there's a palpable silence at the end, while the audience digests what they just heard. And no one wants to be the first to interrupt the silence with applause.
Danny was next: "Do I have to follow her? I hate following her!" He was great, as usual. Tells great stories, does that boy. Choclair wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but he's good at what he does. He invited everyone on stage to accompany him. Since he's a rapper, there's no real "key", so there was some silent signing back and forth while the guitarists and Sarah decided on a key. And Danny wasn't happy about accompanying a rap on an acoustic guitar. "I'm fuckin' terrified!" Danny and Sarah had way too much fun during this. *g* Oh, and Danny did a truly terrifying impression of Justin Timberlake. Scarred me for life. ;-)
Blair introduced his song with: "I write about one song a year. This is this year's song...."
The rapper Snow was in the audience as well, and since he did the Bluebird tour last year, they invited him up. Not my favourite performance of the evening. During his rap, which mostly mentioned himself, he actually pointed to Sarah and said, "I don't know your name..." And what IS is about rappers, that all their "songs" mention themselves??
It was a great night though. I had chance to chat with Danny a bit afterwards. I wanted him to sign something, and I mentioned that he had a fan in New Zealand. He was THRILLED! Snow came over and interrupted our conversation and when he heard that Danny had a Kiwi fan, he said, "You're going international!"
Last week I went to Bluebird North at Richard's on Richards in Vancouver. Yup, the infamous "Dick's on Dicks *g* For you non-Vancouverites, the club's on Richards Street. It was a terrific line-up. Hosted by Shari Ulrich and Blair Packham, with Bill Henderson, Danny Michel, Sarah Slean, Neil Osborne of 54-40, Choclair (ok, I wasn't overly thrilled with him), and Damhnait Doyle. The place was absolutley packed, and there were a lot of industry people there, according to the performers, who made sure to point them all out. The Canadian heads of Sony and Warner Music, for instance. Also, Paul Myers was there. He's the guy who wrote the book, "Public Stunts,Private Stories" about the Barenaked Ladies. He's also a musician and movie critic.
I talked my friend Steve into going. Hubby had a rehearsal, but he wouldn't have gone anyway. He's a Jazz Snob™ after all. ;-) We weren't sure if the club had food, and since it was an early (8 pm) show, neither of us had had time to get dinner. Once inside we found out that they don't have food, so we decided that Steve would run out to grab us some food, while I held our table. Shari Ulrich happened to be getting ready and she heard us so she said to Steve, "Yeah, go be the hunter-gatherer." Steve left....and came back within 2 minutes. No outside food allowed. Damn. Shari came back and asked us if we had gotten food, and we explained that no food was allowed in the house. She said "There's food backstage. Most of the performers already went out for dinner, so you're welcome to our food." We were really touched, but turned it down. So a little later she comes back, with her hand behind her back. And she puts something on our table. It was crackers and cheese, wrapped up in napkins, so the staff wouldn't see it! heh...she's really sweet. And very funny.
The first half was Shari, Bill Henderson (they worked together a lot in the '80's), Damhnait Doyle and Neil Osborne. It was terrific. Poor Damhnait, though. She explained that she had left all her things (including the guitar) by the radiator in the hotel room...and the radiator leaked. She thought that the guitar was OK, but she showed us that after it dried a little, the finish all around the edge was bubbled and when she tried to play, she discovered the pick-up was ruined as well. She ended up borrowing Shari's guitar. Her record comes out this week, and she said, "I'm fuckin' begging you to buy it, because now I have to buy my friend a new guitar." It wasn't her guitar! Ack! After Shari lent her a guitar, Damhnait said, "I just wanna try all the Gibsons on stage tonight - see what else I can ruin." :-(
Neil did songs from the upcoming 54-40 record, although he did them on acoustic. They sound great.
The second half was the one most people obviously came to see. Sarah, Danny, Choclair and Blair. Our table was directly in line with Sarah and Danny - yum. Sarah had the largest crowd, for sure. She's got a lot of male fans, who pretty much just stood at the side of the stage and stared at her. ;-)
Sarah: "This place sure doesn't suck." She did an amazing song that was a tribute to Judy Garland. Absolutely beautiful, and a true "pin-drop" moment. It's the kind of song, and it was the kind of performance where there's a palpable silence at the end, while the audience digests what they just heard. And no one wants to be the first to interrupt the silence with applause.
Danny was next: "Do I have to follow her? I hate following her!" He was great, as usual. Tells great stories, does that boy. Choclair wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but he's good at what he does. He invited everyone on stage to accompany him. Since he's a rapper, there's no real "key", so there was some silent signing back and forth while the guitarists and Sarah decided on a key. And Danny wasn't happy about accompanying a rap on an acoustic guitar. "I'm fuckin' terrified!" Danny and Sarah had way too much fun during this. *g* Oh, and Danny did a truly terrifying impression of Justin Timberlake. Scarred me for life. ;-)
Blair introduced his song with: "I write about one song a year. This is this year's song...."
The rapper Snow was in the audience as well, and since he did the Bluebird tour last year, they invited him up. Not my favourite performance of the evening. During his rap, which mostly mentioned himself, he actually pointed to Sarah and said, "I don't know your name..." And what IS is about rappers, that all their "songs" mention themselves??
It was a great night though. I had chance to chat with Danny a bit afterwards. I wanted him to sign something, and I mentioned that he had a fan in New Zealand. He was THRILLED! Snow came over and interrupted our conversation and when he heard that Danny had a Kiwi fan, he said, "You're going international!"