"Oh Yeah" Part 3.3 - Story Of A Band To Be Proud Of: Bowery Ballroom Show Continued

This entry follows after the two directly above, being a continuation of photos from the recent Great Big Sea Bowery Ballroom show in New York City, these of the closing songs of the main set. If tthe encore tunes are epilogue to the story of this show, that would makes these last three songs, and most of all the final song of the main set, the destination toward which all of the evening's plotlines had been heading.

After Helmethead, the customary final closing songs begin, with Alan playing his beautiful instrumental intro for Consequence Free.

Mari Mac

Ordinary Day, ending where this began, a larger moment in time glimpsed in the passing of a few fleeting seconds, daunting clarity and ephemeral truth.

 

 

Walking out of the Bowery Ballroom on a rainy evening, I felt as shaken and stirred as the proverbial Bondian martini, worried by what I had seen and even more impressed by what I had seen. Regardless of what might or might not have been the larger truth of this one evening, the smaller truth is that this was a very good show, a powerful and a persuasive show. Perhaps not a large triumph in the face of greater challenges, but a real and genuine small triumph nonetheless. And an equally real and genuine occasion to feel proud of the men who accomplished more on this evening than they might have.

Comments

[Marianne]

Wow these are cool. I don't know what it is a about the BW pictures that gives them such force but it does. I really like so many pix of Murray too! Too bad you had such a poor angle on Bob.

Bye!
Mari

[lynda]

Hi Mari - Glad you're enjoying the black and whites, and the Murrays too. He was being a sexy, smouldery fellow at this show (he always seems to have lots of fun in NYC), and I especially liked it when Alan would come over and play side-by-side with him.

Two very quick notes in response to not-to-post comments. First, I'm sorry to get so wounded about the pessimism comment. I know no hurt was intended, no worries; I was just being overly touchy about a truth I am not fond of. But thanks very much for the compliment about my maybe getting a toe or two onto Middle Ground in regards to the cruise. That really meant a lot to me, more than you could know.

Second, about video download troubles. I went ahead and fully downloaded each of the European videos I have up here; they all played perfectly for me, no problems at all. So I am not sure what your trouble might be. It would help if you told me what the error message actually is. Upgrading to the most current free version of Quicktime if yours is an old version might help too.

The best advice I have for now is to try downloading again, probably at least a few hours after an unsuccessful attempt. Megaupload is a tweaky place, and sometimes what does not work right now will work perfectly well a bit later. The uploads are good, so it's a matter of getting a good download to be able to play them. Let me know if it works for you, and if you want to give me more info, I'll see if I can help figure it out or find somebody who can.

[Jean-Marie]

Linda,
Thanks for the wonderful pictures and your memories of that night. I had more fun at this show than I have had at any GA GBS show in quite a while (due to the lack of drunken, rowdy, selfish, physically-abusive assholes that I have been running into, or running into me, at numerous past shows). Instead I was surrounded by GBS faithfuls who appreciated the music they were putting out...it was lovely. I have also been following, with much interest, the discussion here related to the cruise. I have been wondering the same things others have...will it be a nightmare for the boys? will it be a pleasure? or an interesting mix of both? Somehow I can't see Bob all that excited about some over-zealous fan approaching him in the breakfast buffet line.

As always, it was a great pleasure to see you in NYC. Hopefully I'll run into you at other (hopefully soon-to-be-announced) East Coast shows.

[Jean-Marie]

By the way, I frigging LOVED "Oh Yeah". Completely sexy. Can't wait to hear it on CD.

[Lynda]

Hi,Jean-Marie. I'm sorry to take so long to respond to your comment. The blog has been problematic of late.

I'm glad you had a good show experience at the Bowery (it was very nice having you behind me too - one of the few shows I did not wind up with a beer poured down my back); I know it wasn't a lot of fun for you at Hammerstein.

While I've been trying to figure out my blog troubles, one of the things I have been thinking about it your cruise question. You have challenged my newfound resolve to find some sort of Middle Ground in being honest, but doing so with some moderation and discretion. Let's see if I can rise to that challenge

Speaking generally, I believe that it is possible to find pleasure in the vast majority of circumstances, even if some of those circumstances require more of a concerted effort to result in a pleasurable experience. And of course, some circumstances require less effort. Making your own pleasure - finding your own fun - is something that is often as much up to us to choose as it's equally our choice to find ways to be miserable in most any cirucmstance, if that's how we'd rather be feeling. I've known some people who can find something to bitch about no matter how good things are, and others who can almost always find something good in the shittiest of times.

Specifically speaking, especially after spending some time reading accounts, looking at photos and watching some videos from the cruise, I've come to the honest-as-I-can-be conclusion that this is a question that, for practical purposes, can be answered in only one way.

Nearly every account I have seen so far is from a person who is firmly convinced that the band members - and most of all Alan, who was following in Ed's footsteps with continual visibility and accessibilty - were genuinely interested in and glad about interacting with the fans on board. If this were true - if the band members really were finding pleasure in this contact - then my saying anything otherwise would be out-and-out wrong.

If it were not true, then that would mean that they (again, most of all Alan), thought it was important enough to make people feel that it was true that they (he) invested a great deal of time and energy into making that happen. In this case, I would be a shithead for saying anything otherwise.

So either way, my answer is going to be the same. Maybe the best thing to say is that they sure gave a lot of pleasure to the cruisers. That said, I don't have a bit of doubt that Alan loved every single minute he got to spend on stage with his friends.

It was good seeing you again, too. I'm not expecting an imminent tour announcement, more just stray dates for the time being, I think, though I would not mind at all being wrong. With the way they are currently playing the Northeast, I'll bet I see you again very soon. Atlantic City isn't too far for you, is it? For that matter, DC isn't far...but then, my definition of "far" isn't exactly typical.

Last but best - I agree completely about that being a frigging sexy song. Oh yeah.

[Jean-Marie]

Lynda,
I will most definitely be at the Atlantic City show. My dad and stepmother go down to AC at least once a month (I believe their car goes on auto-pilot when within 200 miles of a casino) and so I'm going to make it a nice weekend with them. If you think about it AC is an interesting location for them...proximity to Tri-state area fans (NY, NJ, Conn) as well as the Pennsylvania crowd. I'm anxious to see how the whole "casino-vibe" will affect their show, if at all.

I have also been reading the OKP posts about the cruise and it DOES sound like the guys had fun and, so far, I haven't discerned any extremely intimate, in-your-face encounters that would turn the guys off and make them unlikely to do Ships and Dip again. When the cruise info was posted I wasn't really interested, mostly because I am not really a cruise person. I've been on one to Alaska which was beautiful but I wasn't particularly enamored of the experience. With that said I now have extreme buyer's remorse because hearing the stories about the cruise and seeing the pictures I really feel as if I missed out. Not because I wanted to "mingle" with the guys (as you know, I've done that and nothing will ever beat Alan singing a few new songs in my ear...nothing)but because the idea of a casual, outdoor concert with the sea, the sky, and the guys sounds amazing. If the guys are game for this again next year I don't know how I can, in good conscience, miss it! Would you ever consider going?

[lynda]

It surprised me a bit when I saw this show listed and realised I hadn't ever been to AC (funny - I type "AC" and think Air Canada, which pisses me off since they are currently on my shit list); it's not often anymore that there's the chance to see a GBS show in a brand new city. It seems like it would be an interesting city to visit. If you have any suggestions for places to wander while there (on foot, that is), I'd love to hear them.

I think casino shows depend a lot on what kind of venue it is (the Vancouver show venues were really cool, while the Potawatomi venue was kind of weird) and what kind of crowd (most of the Vancouver people I talked to had never been to the casino, while a quite a few of the Potawatomi folks were casino regulars). HOB casino venues I've been to seem to draw a combination of non-casino types who come for the show (and GBS always draws those people too) and some of the gaming vacationers taking in a casino show. And it's St. Pat's Day weekend, which creates its own kind of vibe. It all sounds interesting and I will probably wind up there and at ShamrockFest too, no matter how I feel about it now. At the end of the day, I like seeing Alan perform, maybe close to as much as he likes doing the performing.

I have tried to go on that Alaskan cruise - or one like it - so many times. Once a good friend was working the cruise as a geology interpreter and he wanted us to come along as his guests. I really tried but couldn't go through with it. A cabin with no windows was an obstacle I could not get past. I've since been told by cruising friends that there are some cabins that have balconies. Maybe that would work for someone like me if the weather was good enough to sleep on the balcony. Probably not Alaska though. It sure does looks beautiful and there are things that can only be seen from sea. Maybe someday.

Phobias are funny (funny-odd, that is). Just because a person can talk sensibly about it when it isn't happening, that makes people assume it's really not such a big deal. I've got something going on right now that intensely triggers my claustrophobia, and because I have sounded so reasonable talking about it, it's resulted in my getting brutally impatient treatment when "reasonable" gets overwhelmed. Maybe I'd be better off if I bawled and whined when I talked about it instead.

As for the cruise, same as I said earlier - I think there's bad stuff in with the good and good stuff in with the bad. Some of what the cruise was about are things I think are good things: Songwriters' Circles (Panel) are always not-to-be-missed, and maybe the Children's Listening Party was cool too, though I still don't think kids really belonged on that boat, especially not on the "Beer and Titties" Lido deck.

The people who really wanted to/needed to escape from "Real Life" for a week and who got a genuine thrill about walking around alongside rock stars had a wonderful time, same for those who pretty much wanted to be drunk for a week. Then there are the folks who genuinely enjoyed lounging on the deck chair in the sunshine, but I have trouble sitting still for long, so that's not really my cup of any kind of beverage, with or without umbrella.

I know it was more about the music to a percentage of the people - simply by law of averages, if nothing else, and some have been talking about how much they enjoyed discovering good new music - but it does seem for the most part that music was the servant to Fun, which is great if that's what you're after getting nonstop for an entire week.

It's always fascinating to watch people interact in new environments; you can learn a lot you never even thought about before, though it can sometimes be painful when it's people you care about. At the end of the day, while I can understand why it could be great fun for others, I guess it's not really a place where I fit in all that well. But then, neither is ShamrockFest or some of the other places I have been (including the mythically metaphorical "ratty little bar in Dusseldorff"), winding up in those kind of places for that same reason...seeing Alan perform. Even if a few drunks wind up falling on me.

Not much of an answer, is it? I guess it's hard to share an answer you don't have yourself.