"Every Reason Why" Part 4.1 - All The Colours Of The Palette (Great Big Christmas Show Pictures)

Who needs Christmas presents when there's a face this sweet to be seen at the Great Big Christmas show?

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This entry is the companion piece to the one of black-and-white photos from the same three songs during the gift - a gift both to Daffodil Place and to each person there at the Delta on a snowy St. John's night who loved what they saw and what they heard - that was the Great Big Christmas show. The songs are Walk On The Moon, which was performed with heartfelt passion; Paddy Murphy, which provoked the crowd into a burst of celebratory exuberance; and then there was When I Am King, which began with a sultry smoulder and then flared up into a sensuous sizzle.

Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea have come a very long way since the first time a clearly nervous (and lovably dear because of that nervousness) Alan Doyle somewhat defiantly strapped a little black Les Paul Gibson on at a Delta Christmas show in 2003  - "Electric guitar at a GBS show?" a woman behind us had queried, a startled look on her face. "Isn't that sort of sacrilegious?" -  and determinedly launched into When I Am King for a crowd that reacted to the great big sacrilege with an air of good-natured bemusement at something they had certainly not expected.

Fast-forward to the same place, in 2007. By doing it that way, you will pass quickly and lightly over the often-difficult terrain that lies between then and now, though you will also miss much that is worth remembering and treasuring. For those who lack the luxury of that fast-forward option, those whose only choice was to traverse each bumpy road along the way, how this crowd reacted to that same song - how this crowd now so enthusiastically embraced what had seemed so new and different to the crowd then - will, I hope, help to give a sense of point and purpose to some of those intervening challenges.

On this night, Great Big Sea rocked the hometown house with When I Am King, the hometown crowd that came to their show expecting to be rocked just this way by a song that they have come to accept over the past four years, a song that is now familiar and loved. And when it came time for Oh Yeah to rock that hometown crowd much harder and more gloriously than they had could have ever expected Great Big Sea would or could rock them...this time, the crowd was ready to have their expectations changed yet again.  From "sacrilege" to "Holy Shit!" in four years. Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea have come a very long way.

How much further could they go, if they chose to continue travelling along those bumpy roads? Together or separately, the sky (which can be pretty darn bumpy too) is the limit; it has to be the sky...otherwise, how else would Alan be able to take his walk on the moon?

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Walk On The Moon and When I Am King, up close and in colourful beauty.

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Walk On The Moon, which had this hometown crowd firmly in hand.

Too bad about losing Sean's nose behind the mic, but at least I got a bit of a view of Bob's concentration.

Paddy Murphy, performed with grinning, slightly manic, glee by Sean.

Still gorgeous even in the Dantesque lighting, and always with that uncanny knack of knowing just where he most belongs on any stage....in the spotlight, both fore and aft.

Lovely view, interesting lighting.

Sean and Alan rock out to Paddy Murphy.

Assuming the position that suits him so well  and looks so lovely at the end of Paddy.

Intro to When I Am King, which always has an especially wicked, delightfully sexy edge when done at home. When Alan gets to his "best damn kisser" line in the song, he's emphatic, and completely convincing.

WIAK, full of shameless delight, breathless sensuality, and pure guitar glory.

The moon, then the stars...with a long reach and an eager grasp, almost anything is possible.