CONCERT REVIEWS - SARNIA BAYFEST!
Contributed by: Suebee
The alarm went off at 5 am, but I had already been awake for ten minutes, I was so excited. It's been MUCH more than "one week" since my last BNL show (1 year, 1 month, and 10 days, to be exact), and I was itching. We hit the long road to Sarnia at 7 am -- my husband John, Molly's nephew Phillip, and myself.
After encountering a chipper, young, female border guard heading into Canada (aren't they always chipper on the Canuck side?), the excitement started to build. We enjoyed listening to lots of b-sides and concert banter on my MP3 disk, and made our way to the QEW. We had a minor slipup, and ended up temporarily heading for Toronto by accident (darn.), but got back on track quickly, and headed toward the vast wastelands of 402/403. Holy crap, there's NOTHING on that road. It's like the Road to Nowhere, even if I did know, at least for that weekend, that it was a road to SOMEWHERE! :D
We finally got to Sarnia around 11:30 am, exactly 4.5 hours later. We checked into our hotel, took Phillip to his hotel, and came back to unload our stuff into our room. Around noon, we walked over to the venue, which was just down the street from our hotel, and scoped things out. There were only a couple people in the line we saw, and I didn't know any of them. There was a cute little playground area by the water, so we went and sat for a few minutes.
Soon, we heard drums, and though that it may be Tyler warming up. We got up and wandered toward the backstage area to see what we could see. I saw Steve standing back there, and so we didn't look like gawkers, we kept walking. As we got around the other side, I spotted a few people I knew getting out of their car -- it was Leilani, Audzilla, Weezle and Starr234! We went over and said hi, and as I turned toward the venue, I saw a whole different line, with LOTS of faces I knew! As it turns out, the other line we saw was the under nineteen crowd, at the underage entrance -- and everyone I knew was over 19, waiting at the "adult" entrance! LOL! So we went and hung out with our friends, and eventually settled down in line to wait for the gates to open. It was about 12:30 pm. I could have entered on either side, since I had no interest in drinking, but the 19+ entrance was stage-Steve, so there I stayed. :D
Waiting in line was actually tons of fun, and went by pretty quickly, considering we were out there for as long as we were INSIDE the venue. Yeesh. There was water, and snacks, and sign-making, and chatting about past events, in jokes, hopping and fence-scaling to try to see sound check, etc. Good times. :)
Sound check was... amazing. The Ladies knew we'd been outside waiting for hours, and I think they decided to play five new songs off the upcoming album just for us! They did Maybe Katie, Testing 123, Second Best, Chimpanzees, and Have You Seen My Love? I don't think anyone bootlegged sound check -- despite some folks being properly equipped -- what a pity. I think we were all too stunned to ACTUALLY be listening to new music BEFORE anyone else outside of BNL's immediate circle of friends and family! It was special, indeed! We all just sort of stood there, listening, concentrating, attaching titles to songs, and blissing out.
Maybe Katie was very good... very mellow. To be honest, I only really remember the chorus at this point, but I still hum it to myself from time to time. What IS so maybe about Katie, anyway? Chimpanzees was the song I REALLY wanted to hear, just based on the title, and it was just as good as I had hoped. Chimps are always good subject matter. Second Best has gone fuzzy on me, but I also remember enjoying it. Testing 1, 2, 3 was killer... but I liked it better in sound check than in the concert because Ed said "shlong" in the place of one of the other words ("song," maybe?). Classic. Face it, I'm easily amused.
Finally, at 6pm, the gates opened, and they started to let us in! I managed to get myself into second row, Steve-side, right smack behind my beloved (but quite tall) Leilani. It's OK, girl. The crick in my neck from looking around you will subside eventually... *hug*
I think it was kinda shumpy that they let us in at 6, but didn't start ANY music until 8:45. My calves are STILL sore, and John has been having back problems since we got home. Oh, and the sunburn... OH! The Sunburn. My nose is losing ALL of its skin, and feels like stucco -- not to mention the LOVELY strap mark on my cheek from my hat. Very fashionable. My husband's legs are forearms are quite lobsterish, as well. As a tribute to our suffering, I designed a t-shirt that says "I got melanoma for BNL - Sarnia Bayfest 2003." next time I venture on one of these international pilgrimages, remind me to pack sunscreen!!
The opening act, Barlow, was awesome. We have plans to track down their CD whenever it comes out. We also got a free CD, and they played all the songs that were on it (there WERE only three on the CD, after all). I am really looking forward to having a recording of one they did about the music industry... very spiffy song, with pointed, biting lyrics. Barlow is interesting. If I had to describe them in terms of other bands, I would call them a cross between Barenaked Ladies (lyrically) and Tragically Hip (musically). I think it was a good match for BNL.
BNL finally hit the stage at 10:30 pm. For a moment, my pain was forgotten as I screamed my lungs out. John also screamed, and started coughing. Even though it was our sixth concert, it was like the first all over again. It was definitely the first time we were so close to the stage! Partway through a pretty standard -- but enjoyable -- set of hits, they called an audible, and decided to play Blame it On Me... I thought I was going to have to prop Leilani up! That's one song I don't think I have ever heard live, and always hoped they'd play one day... Thank you, Queen Elizabeth, or whoever it was who REALLY recommended they play the song. I was bummed to see later that Careless Whisper was on the set list and got cut, but for Blame it on Me in exchange, I'll get over it. Trust me. ;)
Though the songs they played were fairly predictable, they did a nice job of rearranging the songs so it wasn't the same old, same old. Unlike recent shows I have seen, their energy is BACK. No one looked tired, everyone looked like they were ecstatic to be on that stage. Their energy alone reaffirmed my faith. Not that it needed much reaffirming, but it was nice to see them so happy again. :)
During one of the first few songs, some tool with crappy song recognition threw some KD that actually looked like it was COOKED -- this blob landed on the stage... it was... weird. A little later, someone else (or maybe the same tool) opened a pack of cheese powder, and chucked it like a grenade. Idiots. I was expecting BNL to make a comment on the KD-throwing during $1,000,000 (Sarnia must have missed the memo... KD-chucking went out in 1998...), but I think when they saw that NONE of it came from the first, say, ten "rows," AND they saw the look on OUR faces in the first couple of rows, it was obvious they didn't NEED to say anything. Heh heh. I know I had a look on MY face that could stop traffic. We were pissed. We try SO hard to spread the word, to no avail. *sigh*
The banters, as usual were goofy, funny, immature, and pure entertainment. Vegetarian Pita chanting and the related coordination chaos; parties in porta-potties; extreme shumps ("I could actually hear the synapses clicking as Tyler decided whether to say 'shit' or 'dump'" - Steve); Narnia/Sarnia confusion; The Street Formerly Known as Mouth Street (Exmouth -- har har); "We've been working on a new album, and to be honest... it's not very good. So we're going to re-release our second album and hope it does better this time..." (Ed); and trying to "trick" us again, by going on and on about a new song that worried the record company because it sounded like another of their songs -- then launching into One Week; and looking for prizes under security guard's butts -- "They're not just here for your safety, they're here for your entertainment!" (Ed).
Speaking of security guards, I'd like to know WHERE they found the four chuckleheads that were in front of us... I think they were beer reps that they recruited as backup, but I swear they were one "dude" away from pulling out a hackey sack -- or a keg! LOL! Frat guy city. We could have stormed the stage as a group and groped Steve, and they wouldn't have done a thing... yeesh. They're lucky the most hard core BNL fans are quite a docile group.
All in all, it was worth the long drive, worth the sunburn, and worth destroying my back, feet and legs standing like cattle for six hours. It was AWESOME to see friends again, and meet NEW people, too! Hopefully we'll get to do it again sometime, with ASSIGNED SEATS, thank you very much.
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