04/24/09: The Danforth Music Hall: Toronto, Ontario

[Patrick Quinn]

Great show.

Everything has been said already but definitely have to comment on Gord's state of normalicy. Just chatting with the crowd, but didn't leave out the great dance moves. The Grace, Too story was awesome, including the rant about the Sturgeon towards the end.

The setlist was well put together, great flow, the new tunes were awesome, a few classics in the making (The Last Recluse inparticular was great). I was sitting just behind the sound board, which was interesting because I knew the setlist before the show (snuck a peak). Made for a really different show. They were talking a lot about how the boys were tinkering with sound, the mandolin, slide guitar, keyboard, and all levels in general.

There really isn't enough I can say about this set, from acoustic, to Toby Keith, to new songs, to old songs. I never thought I would hear 4 songs off Music @ Work in one show after the actual tour for the album, what a great surprise. Morning Moon is great live, true Blue Rodeo feel, and I like it. Grace, Too is an anthem of legendary proportions.

No complaints from this guy.

See you music lovers at Massey Hall.

[Tthip]

The Bear:

[Escape@Hand]

Seeing that setlist makes me completely impatient to see them now; I have to wait until September!! I don't know if I can take this!

[WesleyC.]

You lucky bastards, all of youse who went to that show. Hopefully it was not a "special" show and they keep some of the ideas and songs, carry them forward for the entire tour.
I actaully got excited reading all the reviews and will be sure to post my review for monday to wednesdays shows.
And I read that someone said the crowd seemed bored for " The Exact Feeling " song. Well I hope they keep that one included as I really like the way the guitars mesh all over the place on that song.

[dreyfuss]

I really enjoyed the show last night and look forward to the rest of the tour. The Bear was just awesome,

Good time with old friends,

And Chris, as you may have seen by now there was another video camera in the balcony on the right side. We noticed him when were in our seats for the 1st half.

[Tthip]

And Chris, as you may have seen by now there was another video camera in the balcony on the right side.

Raises hand.

[Mr. Lahey]

Oh an important note i forgot:

I noticed Billy Ray and the other stage crew singing along and dancing to all the new stuff, mostly Depression Suite, which I thought was wicked!

This coupled with the band sounding so tight, and the crowd dancing and singing along aswell, made for such an overall great experience.

[jay420]

Great show, great setlist. The highlights for me were Titanic Terrarium (never thought I'd see that one live) and Tiger the Lion (sounded great... some good heavy riffs in that one that sounded even better live.) It was also cool to see Pigeon Camera (Gord said something about how espionage used to be so much easier before starting the song.) Eldorado sounded really good too ("If you were a car, what kind of car would you be? A Prius? Hey, that's not funny")

The little unplugged set was very cool to see.

My only complaint is that there was nothing from Road Apples. I was really, really hoping for Cordelia.

[thompson girl]

That has got to be in my top 3 Hip shows of all time.

Like others have said, they were so relaxed, and you could tell they were really enjoying themselves out there. Rob didn't want to leave the stage the second time around!

I loved how much Gord spoke - it made it feel like an "Intimate & Interactive" show. I noticed that some of their kids were in the audience, and in the sidelines of the stage, and they looked right at home. I believe Mrs. Downie was two rows behind me. So it was really a "family band" type of atmosphere.

I still have a couple of WATS songs I'm waiting to hear - Queen of the Furrows and Love is a First, so I'll be looking forward to hopefully hearing those next time.

Eldorado was awesome. And while I normally skip over Tiger the Lion on the album, I admit that I love it live.

I took pictures. I'm no MAv or Trevor, so don't expect much, but feel free to check them out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24095831@N ... 216455309/

[Tthip]

[Escape@Hand]

Any chance of Titanic being posted?

[Tthip]

Any chance of Titanic being posted?

[sherpa]

I can't wait for my 4 nights in Toronto - I hope they play lots of M@W as I've been saying for 10 years that it is their best album and has been terminally ignored since the first Evening With Tour. Wild Mountain Honey, Sharks, Toronto#4, Wind On Down The Pines, Lake Fever, The Bear, The Completists, Stay, Train Overnight - there isn't a bad song on it - I love quirky albums like this - it is kind of the Zooropa of their catalogue. Throw in Don't Wake Daddy, Sherpa, Titanic Terrarium, Nashville, Vapour Trails, The Rules, Emperor Penguin, Escape, etc and it will be incredible - I'll take any of them over another Courage, or New Orleans, or 100th Meridian, or Poets for the 50th time.

Oh Fight would be awesome as well - it was a highlight I still remember from the Road Apples Tour at the Concert Hall - with Gord fake fighting an invisible enemy.

[daylight]

Really good show, but I think my expectations were a little too high and I came away a teeny bit disappointed. I think part of the problem was that the first set was so great and unpredictable that the second (after the acoustic part) was a bit of a let down. The encore was super great, though, which brought things back up a notch. Could have used a couple more acoustic songs (hopefully in the actual tour - the suggestion of rotating songs every night is an excellent one) and a few more songs in general (again, actual tour). I'm a little worried that the bigger shows will be basically the same setlist but with more "common" tunes, but if I'm wrong that would be fantastic. My ideal setlist arrangement would be new song/hit song/relatively rare song (repeat until finished) and while they were on the right track last night there was a little too much of the middle category.

As for the new stuff, Morning Moon was great (dig the special effects on that one), Honey Please was alright, Recluse was better at some points than studio (band member backing vocals rather than haunted house effects) and worse at others, Coffee Girl sort of fell flat for me, Depression was fantastic, Exact Feeling was meh, and Country Day was great once the sound problems with the slide guitar were figured out. Surprised there was no Furrows or Love is a First, and hope to hear those at my other show. Every time the mandolin came out I got excited for Furrows!

I felt that keyboard fills were a little lame at points. It was okay when he was actually playing notes as a part of the song, but when it was just "atmosphere" sounds to duplicate the strings it sounded wrong to me. This was most problematic during Coffee Girl (first "trumpet" bit sounded bad, second was better) and Recluse.

Other than that, the band was on, Gord sounded better than I expected, seats were great (my short friend and I were probably better off on the terraced balcony than the floor), surprises were great, and even some of the old favourites had a bit of extra kick to them.

[trevor]

I'm no MAv or Trevor...

Well thanks Sarah! That's nice of you to say! I liked your set. Thanks for sharing.

Here's a little teaser pic from the show last night....



I'll post more when I've had a chance to process them....