...from the tropical island of Newfoundland...

[katster]

It was an interesting day. I went to San Francisco, got off the BART at Civic Center, and walked right into a protest. Got to see riot cops and everything. San Francisco is an interesting place these days. Luckily I was able to walk out of it, and headed onwards to my destination.

Getting to a concert venue at four PM when the doors don't open until eight usually assures you of a prime spot in line. :) But, my tickets were at Will Call, and Slim's is very stupid about how they handle that. Luckily, I made friends. And it only cost me the effort of posting to the message boards at www.greatbigsea.ca. I also managed to help rosefox and sinboy get in near the first, and while I wasn't able to be so helpful to mactavish and deyo, they still managed to get in and get decent standing points.

It was fun sitting out there, because I got to watch the gang run back and forth between bus and club. And I got to hear soundcheck, and I got a ways through Ruled Britannica. (BTW, fearghaill, if you get your hands on that book, please don't spoil it for zibblsnrt, okay?) It's a decent book, with a bit of a farfetched premise, but if you accept that, it's pretty good so far. (Farfetched premise: The Spanish Armada wasn't defeated.)

As for me, I got right by the stage, dead center. Seriously, later in the night, I got to look up and see Alan, right there. It was *great*. The opening act (a group called the Wil Seabrook Band) were decent. (I later bought their CD just because I know what it's like to be a starving student/artist, and it was five bucks.) But of course the highlight of the night was the main act, that nutty bunch of Newfies we've all grown to love, Great Big Sea.

And everything I've been told by zibblsnrt and fearghaill about past concerts...right on the money. Heck, I think they threw some extra effort into it because tonight was the last night of the tour. I got my hands on Play and Up (and the self titled album is winging its way to me via the wonders of Canada Post and amazon.ca). I also have one of Sean's picks.

And a bunch of us waited an hour and a half, managed to ambush Alan, and I got him to sign my ticket. (And he sorta kinda maybe remembers Patrick's brother. I had to state the band affiliation before poor Alan made a connection.)

Anyway...that was worth it. Whenever they come to a town I'm living in, I'm *so* there. Hell, I might plan a trip to see Patrick around a future tour date perhaps. ;)

It's neat to see how, exactly, they made some of the sounds they did on the albums. And when they played "Gideon Brown", a couple fans put a bunch of boats on the stage. Alan went, "Ah! This must be the US navy." Sean picked one up and noted they had an HMS prefix, and Alan goes, "Well, it was more likely the Canadian navy..." (There was about nine boats on the stage...)

And they really like San Francisco, it reminds them of St. John's. :)

And they played a lot of my favourites, and they started out the act with what I consider the song that I consider one of the strong themes of Patrick's and my relationship. At least, when I hear it, I think of him. :) ("Sea of No Cares", if you care. The goldfish album had just come out about the time Patrick and I were consummating a relationship, so...)

And I just missed the 2:14 bus home, so I had to wait for the 3:15 bus, and I'm typing this up, putting my registration in on greatbigsea.ca like I promised, and just in general doing some maintenance work.

I had a blast. :)

I wanna do it again. :)

Comments

[kuangning]

Bah. Alan must've been exhausted if he only "kinda sorta maybe" remembered. His memory was better when they played here. ;) And too bad you didn't get to enlist Kris like I did... he got the other autographs for me. Sean's is, ironically, the only one I'm missing. (Ironically, because he's my favourite and the one whose autograph I wanted most.)

Glad you had a great time, though! I made the same decision about always going to see them when they're within reach. They're a hundred thousand times better live. I completely understand now how some people plan their jobs and vacations around when/where GBS is touring.

</ raving fangirl>

[phenyx.livejournal.com]

damn right!

GBS on CD is one thing. GBS live is an Event.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Thanks greatly for waiting! I didn't see you there, but I joined up with the same group once inside. And I wanna do it again, too ;-).