"After So Long, Nobody's Wrong" - Alan Doyle With Blue Rodeo & Kalem Mahoney's Monday Nights (videos); Revisiting Alan & Jim Cuddy @ The Hockey Hall Of Fame (photos); GBS Sings An Anthem For Bob Gainey (audio)

I'm editing this in with some reluctance. I have a link to an MP3 that includes most of GBS's performance of the anthem(s) last night at Bell Centre, a "by special request" performance in honour of Habs great Bob Gainey, whose #23 was retired into its rightful place. Their voices can be heard about 12 minutes in on the counter, after part of an interview with Bob Gainey and then a short news break - first a bit of the end of the Star-Spangled Banner and then all of a bilingual version of O Canada.

GBS sings the national anthem(s) at Bob Gainey's jersey retirement, Bell Centre, Montreal, Feb. 2008 (mp3 - 12 minutes in on counter)    (3 mb)

It's a great effort on what I'm guessing was a grand night for all of them, grandest all for the two diehard Habs fans among their number. I wish I knew how to edit MP3s; if I did, I would have removed the witless comment made at the very end. But  I don't know how to do that, and I will be damned if I am going to let that witless comment prevent me from sharing the great effort made on the grand night. GBS are clearly who Bob Gainey wanted present at his jersey-retirement ceremony; GBS are the ones Bob Gainey was having a dance with at Montreal's Metropolis. In comparison to how good it must feel to be such an important part of this auspicious occasion, one witless remark really doesn't matter all that much. At the end of the day, he who laughs last is he who's having the most fun at the best party; here's hoping that Alan's sides hurt just a wee bit today from how much he laughed last night. He has such a wonderful laugh when he sets it free, and God knows he's paid his dues for the opportunity to do so.

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Alan Doyle & The Jim Cuddy Band (with friends), November 2004

The One And Only Alan Doyle, November 2004

(More from this performance at the end of this entry.)

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We already had plans for Friday night: Mooseburgers and pints, then the Monday Nights' show at The Dock, maybe a stop by the Duke afterwards on the way home; the Blue Rodeo show at Mile One wasn't part of those original plans. I'd known about the BR show for weeks, but didn't buy tickets when they first went on presale/sale because I wasn't sure where I'd be on February 22nd.  When I realised I would still be in town then, I considered getting BR tickets...but we already had plans and I figured any tickets left by such a late date would likely suck. So I forgot all about the BR show.

Plans can change, wonderful things can happen even to those sitting in the shitty seats, and the path from Point A to Point B can sometimes be circuitous and obscure. It wasn't till I got notice of the public sale date of the Juno Cup tickets that I recalled the BR show; when I hear "Juno Cup," my first thought is always Goalie Alan Doyle, but my second thought tends to be  Team Captain Jim Cuddy. I was (am) very disappointed not to see Alan's name on the initial roster of Juno Cup musician-players, but if there's one thing I have become expert at, it is persistent hope - the Juno Cup press release promises that more players "are sure to be added" in the weeks to come. In the midst of deciding to put my money where my hope is and buy a Juno Cup ticket anyway, I got thinking about the one time I saw Alan do an absolutely wonderful show with the Jim Cuddy Band, at the Hockey Hall Of Fame back in the fall of 2004. There was Jim Cuddy in my mind again, all tangled up with Alan Doyle again.

What the hell, I thought. Who cares if only shitty seats are left? I've never seen a "real" Blue Rodeo show (only an odd sort of BR set that was part of the Watershed Festival chaos back in 2002). I enjoy BR's music, and a few of their songs are way up on my own personal all-time favourites list; chief among these favourite songs is What Am I Doing Here. If I could see them perform that song, Lost Together, 5 Days In May, and maybe Bulletproof, that would be more than worth tinkering with the evening's plans and dealing with the shitty seats. I bought the tickets.

And I got so much more than I had hoped for, something priceless beyond expectation.

I thought it was a good show overall. The opening band, Oshawa's Cuff The Duke, played their own Blue Rodeo-esque music well enough. Too bad they shot themselves in the foot with the crowd by telling a witless joke ("I've been getting pumped up about coming to Newfoundland...I've been kissing fish.") that died a slow and painful death in the chilly silence it engendered. The people I was sitting around way back in those shitty seats were already not particularly involved in the show and that blunder didn't help matters at all. They got somewhat more lively once BR took the stage, but as it so often goes, the physical distance tended to decrease attentiveness; except for when BR played "the hits," there was a lot of chatter and restlessness in my little corner of Mile One, a persistent sluggishness when it came to response and participation.

I'm no fan of the "cheap seats" (metaphorical here, since all tickets somewhat inexplicably cost the same for this show). I like to see the performers when they play, and I prefer to be in the place where the crowd's energy is at its most intense. I'd noticed there was no effective control of floor access at this show and briefly considererd simply walking up to the front of the floor area for a better view and a more particpatory crowd, but decided to stay where I was and watch the crowd around and in front of me instead. In a very odd way, that wound up being an excellent decision.

When a Ferris Wheel light effect was displayed behind the band, I knew it was time for my own personal favourite BR tune. During the song's intro, Greg Keelor was going on about a time when BR was playing at the Fairgrounds in Lake Erie at some dismal gig, complete with high school bands and a Ferris Wheel circling endlessly in the distance. Now I'm getting all excited to hear a song I love, and right about then Greg adds that an odd thing happened during this years-ago Lake Erie gig:  "Alan Doyle walked out on stage and started singing". And with those words, Alan walks out onto the Mile One stage.,

I'm pretty fast when it comes to getting my camera out of my bag, and while I was scrambling, all I could think was "Oh  holy shit, why didn't I go up closer when I had the chance?" But as soon as the thought formed, it was blown away by the sudden blast of excitement I felt everywhere around me. All of those distracted and chattering people who had been so haphazardly paying attention were now sitting bolt upright, screaming and cheering and clapping as loud as they could. For Alan Doyle, up there on stage with Blue Rodeo.

It's one thing when the people up front react with energy and enthusiasm; those are the people who come to shows for that purpose. Those are the people I spend so much of my own time in the midst of.  And there are some shows - not a few among GBS shows - where energy and enthusiasm can be found in the farthest rows of the nosebleed seats. What I was suddenly surrounded with coming from the people all around me back in the shitty seats in Mile One was something altogether different; it was a sudden surge of pride and acknowledgement...it was a blaze of victorious accomplishment shared by virtue of a sense of kinship. It felt like being caught up in that crowd's warm, possessive, demanding, loving embrace of the man I'd like to see the whole world embrace. The force of the sudden response was intense, exhilarating, dizzying and moving to the point of causing throat-ache and unsteady camera hands. If I had ventured away from those shitty seats to move up closer, I would have never understood exactly what was taking place while Alan Doyle was onstage with Blue Rodeo.

The view from those shitty seats, standing in the midst of that embrace, on tiptoe, camera held as high as possible in slightly shaky hands:

What Am I Doing Here, Alan Doyle with Blue Rodeo, Mile One, St. John's, Feb. 2008    (195 MB)

When Alan left the stage, the good show carried on as before, and so did my haphazard seatmates. But the sweet memory lingered  all the way to the end, along with the aching throat and the unsteady hands.

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The rest of the evening managed to stay on its original rails. The mooseburgers were delicious, the Duke's Guinness went down as smoothly as always (accompanied by chocolate with hazlenuts), and the Monday Nights finally took the stage at The Dock sometime after 1 a.m. I really like this band, which is comprised of Kalem Mahoney (formerly of Gearbox and co-writer of GBS's Shines Right Through Me), Elliot Dicks and Mark Neary (both from The Novaks, drums and bass, respectively) and recently-added lead guitarist Brad Power (Power House  Blues Band). They arer a fairly new band - apparently their first CD will be out some time before the end of this year (and I bet Alan would be a great producer for that CD) - and they keep sounding a little cleaner and tighter and more polished each time I see them play. I think highly of Kalem's songwriting skills - he's got a penchant for intelligent and honest lyrics, and an equal penchant for coming up with good hooks and catchy melody lines - and the band already has a solid collection of well-written tunes in their repertoire. Here are links to two videos of the band performing a few of the best from that collection:

The Way We Used To Be, The Monday Nights, The Dock, St. John's Feb. 2008    (170 MB)

Heart Of Stone, The Monday Nights, The Dock, St. John's, Feb. 2008    (280 MB)

And this is a partial clip of the song I think would be a great first-single release for the Monday Nights:

Old Dirt Town (partial), The Monday Nights, The Dock, St. John's, Feb. 2008    (115 MB)

The Monday Niights have more good material - I also think well of Annie and Bright City Lights. The latter song has a pair of lines that qualify it as a perfect example of Newfoundland Music:

I'm not happy until it hurts;
And it's not better until it's worse.

While I don't hold out much hope at all for the Montreal radio broadcast fellow being anything other than stunned if he hears a "pubcrawl drinking song" in an anthem sung with gorgeous a cappella harmonies solely because of who those gorgeous a cappella harmonies are coming from, at least if buddy from Cuff The Duke had invested time pondering this couplet instead of kissing fish, he might have actually been ready to come to Newfoundland. I'm all for making these lines the provinicial motto. And, yes, I did notice Canny Jim Cuddy's comment about being glad to come to "your country".

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It was quite late (or early, depending on how you measure the days) by the time we made it back home, but not yet late enough for sleep to overwhelm memory.  I was still thinking and hoping about the Juno Cup (and am continuing to do so...perhaps an evening of celebration in HabsLand will assist in persuading Alan to come and play  in goal in Calgary), and I was still thinking and smiling about Alan on stage with Blue Rodeo at Mile One.  One thought led to another and then to another, and in not too great a space of time, I was back at the Hockey Hall Of Fame in November of 2004, during the break between the two legs of the Canadian portion of the Something Beautiful Tour, almost two months to the day before the dismemberment of the OKP and the beginning of The Long Break.

During that brief pause in the long and demanding SB Tour schedule, which had been rolling relentlessly and with little respite back and forth across the continent since February of that year, Alan had come to Toronto to join the Jim Cuddy Band and a few other musician friends in playing a show in honour of the 2004 HHOF inductees. When I had last seen Alan a week or so before in Guelph, he had looked exhausted and beleaguered; when I would next see Alan in North Bay in a week or so, he would still look exhausted and beleaguered. But on this November evening in Toronto, on the tiny stage at the HHOF in-between there and there again, Alan's smile was as open and as bright as that of a sweet boy, his laughter was unguarded and free, and his guitar hand was afire.  He looked happy, he looked like he was having fun, he looked wonderful. And he sounded just as good. 

It's still one of the sweetest memories out of all the times I have seen Alan Doyle, and I can still remember the thought that was in my mind as I left the HHOF that evening: Whatever it takes to make him this happy, it needs to happen.

I didn't know much about Jim Cuddy at the time; Blue Rodeo doesn't get a great deal of air time on the West Coast of the States and it was still early on in my Canadian travels. I'd heard some good things said about Jim, along wirh some bad things, and I'd formed no particular opinion of my own yet. But Jim Cuddy did something that night at the HHOF that caused me to decide what I think of him, and it's an opinion that's never wavered since.

At that show, the whole front section of the crowd was solidly packed with Blue Rodeo faithful, with the exception of two American women wedged in up at stage edge over on the  left side. Those two women were there to see Alan Doyle, both of them hoping most of all to see Alan Doyle having his way with the electric guitar. All during the first part of the show, before Alan came out and joined the players on stage, there were cheers and applause showered on the favourite musicians of nearly all of those present, diehard fans doing what diehard fans do best. When Alan finally came out, it was pretty darn clear who had come to see whom and whose beauty was in the eyes of which beholders.

After playing a few tunes on the acoustic - on Jim Cuddy's acoustic, mind you - Alan finally began to wail away on the electric. It didn't take long before it became apparent that Alan, who is always keenly aware of exactly where each and every spotlight is located, was playing his heart out while facing toward the spot from which the most intense approval and affection were being aimed in his direction. Jim Cuddy came up behind Alan and gently turned him to his left a bit, so that he was now facing out toward the main part of the crowd. Alan acquiesced with all due compliance, but as soon as Jim's hands were off his shoulders, Alan began to shift back to his right, little by little, tiny baby step after tiny baby step, slowly but surely turning back toward that single spotlight of wholehearted appreciation and unwavering admiration.

If Alan thought Jim wouldn't notice those tiny little steps and his stubbornly steady directional re-adjustment, he underestimated his friend. Jim watched Alan making his slow swivel rightward and cocked an inquistive eyebrow; when Alan had returned to his original position, still wailing away on the electric, Jim glanced over that way into the crowd and understood in a heartbeat. And then he laughed, one of those big laughs full of warmth and friendly good humour, perceptiion tempered by a kind heart. Jim Cuddy didn't try to re-orient Alan anymore, and he smiled with amused affection every time he looked over and saw Alan still playing directly into his own personal spotlight. Jim Cuddy won my lasting approval that night at the HHOF. 

That was a very good night, a night sweet enough to leave a lasting memory that would bring splace and warmth to some of the very bad nights that followed after. Remembering that night while watching the sun come up yesterday morning, I found myself thinking the exact same thought that was on my mind back then:  Whatever it takes to make him this happy, it needs to happen.

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A small assortment of those sweet and lasting memories from the HHOF show.

Not all nights are useless. Every now and then, the view from the highest point of the Ferris Wheel's incessant arc is something truly beautiful. Even better are those rare and priceless times when that view is something beautifully true.

.

Comments

[Teri]

Thanx for the video and anthem. I like Blue Rodeo but never saw them live.

[Stephen]

We went up to Vancouver to see Blue Rodeo a number of years ago. It was a good show, professional and played expertly. I should get back up and see them again. Did you like the new material?

Why does Alan need to be persuaded to play hockey with pros? I thought he lived and breathed hockey in his free time?

The anthem sounds like an anthem. There isn't any good reason for making a comment like that. There's always bad reasons doing for that kind of thing. I didn't download the big song yet but both the smaller ones are good, especially the first one you have there. If you're friend has a site I can't find it.

The crocuses are up.

[nansea]

great big thanx for the blue rodoe clip.....we've been fans of theirs since '92, when we saw them in albuquerque.nm......last october we took a quick train trip to philadelphia while visiting my mom in nc.....they were awesome....
how lucky you were...to catch alan with his guest appearance..... casino is our favorite album.......
thanx again...
nansea

i got the sun in the sky and the water surrounds me.......

[Linda]

Wow, thanks for the anthem clip. I've been looking everywhere to hear them sing it. The Blue Rodeo with Alan video is wonderful too!

[lynda]

Very glad to be of assistance in file-sharing. There's something more I want to say about BR and Juno Cup hockey, but it's going to have to wait a bit till I can get back here. Right now I'm taking myself and this nasty-ass flu bug back to bed for a few hours.

[L]

Lynda Lynda Lynda! Tickets are on sale for an Edmonton show on St. Pat's! Did you know? A casino for Pat's Day? How weird is that?!

[lynda]

Laura, yes, I did know about Edmonton, but thank you anyway for thinking of me. That was very sweet and considerate of you.

Not only a casino for Paddy's Day, but apparently tent-venue at a casino. A tent in March in Edmonton - I am hoping a very well-heated tent in March in Edmonton.

So the St. Patrick's weekend will be two casino venues and a no-holds-barred festival. Interesting. Actually, I've seen 3 GBS casino shows prior to this and while the first one (Potowatomi Casino) was indeed weird - mostly because the venue itself was pretty darn weird - the other two shows at the Vancouver-area casinos this past November really wound up turning out quite well. Both of those venues were classy, and both were only peripherally attached to the casinos, which helped the shows, I think. But most of all, it was a matter of them putting on their show at each of the casinos...they played both those shows really well, clean and tight and in complete control of crowd and show, especially the second show there.

There's an idea - I've been wondering which show's photos to do next when I finally get the Grey Cup photos done and in an album. I think I already did the first Vancouver casino show (or some of them, at least - I need to go back and check that); maybe I'll do the second casino show next, give a bit of a glimpse of how good a show they can put on in such a setting.

Hello, Linda and Terri. I'm glad you both found what you were looking for here, glad too you enjoyed the video with Alan and Blue Rodeo. It sure was a special moment that night.

Hi Nansea - how have you been? I didn't know you two were big BR fans, especially going so far back with them. Yes, I was really lucky to see Alan there. It wasn't something I'd thought much about going in - I'd have thought (hoped) there would be much more of a likelihood he'll come out at Hawksley's show than BR's - but it sure pleased that crowd. Me too.

Stephen, I am not so familiar with all of BR's tunes that I am always sure which songs are from the new Small Miracles CD if they didn't specifically say so in the introductions. I have to confess I don't think a whole lot of what sounds like a "single release" from that CD ("C'mon" might be the title?). Black Ribbon was interesting, but went on too long, too long for the attenton span of that crowd at least.

I am so unfamiliar with BR's shows that I lack a point of comparative reference, but from what I heard the other night, I came away very impressed by their musicianship - I really had no clue they played that well - but a little less impressed by their showmanship. I suppose they played their show the way they want their show to go, and maybe with a crowd of the totally faithful, that show works great for them. But for this crowd, the instrumentals went on too long. They lost too much attention and wound up distancing the players from the crowd, in my own opinion and based on my own observations. During a few of those extended, technically brilliant instrumental interludes, I found myself thinking this would play spectacularly well in some intimate club, but less so in a rink.

The audience past the first 15 floor rows was at its most enthusisatic during The Hits (and even with that, they went into a very long instrumental and undercut that enthusiasm when opening with 5 Days In May)...and when Alan came out on stage. I don't know how well it comes through on that fuzzy video, but he played to the crowd, and up till then (and after) it felt much more like the crowd was observing BR play to each other, for the most part. Again, in my less-than-educated opinion.

At the end of the day, I left feeling like BR played the show they wanted to play more than they played the show the crowd wanted them to play. Which, in terms of surviving for decades as a viable band and not going absolutely nutters, could quite possibly be a healthy thing. Maybe GBS would do better to play the show they want to play rather than the show their crowd wants them to play, at least some of their crowds.

I'm not sure what's up with the hockey. Alan didn't play in the Juno Cup last year, but then he had other places he had to be around that time. I can't imagine him not playing with his buddies against the '89 Flames if it's possible for him to do so. But maybe it isn't. Of course, I want him in the Juno Songwriters' Circle too (well, Ron Sexmouth seems to be in it year after year, so why not Alan too?). Oh yes, and give the man a Juno Award while he's in town, will you? No, that"s next year. This year it's the Genies.

Glad you liked the Monday Nights' tunes. Yes, they do have a Myspace site and I need to edit it in above too: http://www.myspace.com/themondaynights You can find a (much-smaller) audio download of Heart Of Stone there. They really are quite good, aren't they? Another song they do that I absolutely love is The Wild Goose. That song always makes me think of Dermot...and Alan.

Yeah, I wonder sometimes if people even bother to think before they speak, let alone listen. There is nothing "pubcrawl" about that anthem - do not even get me going on the stunned ones whose answer is "But it was a compliment because he liked it!"...yes, now go tell a black lawyer what a great athlete he is or a woman doctor what a great little cook she is - but this twit is hardly alone in this kind of response. I read a review written by a "major" Canadian journalist that said the songs on Something Beautiful made him thirsty for mugs of beer. I've heard Sea Of No Cares called a "great drinking song". And so on. The Montreal broadcaster might not be in good company, but he's sure in crowded company.

And, yes, I know they drink. On stage, yet, and occasionally to their own disadvantage. They sing a few drinking songs too. And the black lawyer might indeed also be a good athlete, same with the woman doctor being a good cook. But they are still a lawyer and a doctor, not an athlete and a cook...and that anthem had nothing to do with pubcrawling or drinking.

I am going to miss the crocuses this year. But I will see the daffodils, and the tulips too. The jury is still out on the azaleas and the roses., but I sure hope to spend some quality time with my gorgeous Japanese weeping cherry tree. We'll see how it goes.

[Ellen]

They keep coming out with more northeast dates more festivals too. Why so many festivals? I want to see GBS, not sit through a half dozen other bands I don't care for then 45 minutes of GBS. Especially not at Irish festivals. I thought they liked to say they are Newfoundand, not Celtic, music. Are they ever doing a real tour?

P.S. BNL is bigger than GBS here. They played the Shoreline awhile back and GBS plays those shitty downtown clubs. I agree BNL gets no respect.

[lynda]

Hi Ellen - Yeah, the Shoreline is somewhat classier than Bimbo's, if perhaps not quite so atmospheric. BNL played the Opera House in Seattle too, speaking of classy. That was a good show, really well done and overall quite serious. And on the way out I listened to show-attendees going on about what wonderful clowns those BNL guys are. GBS are far from the only band who've had to struggle with being stereotyped by the expectations of some of their biggest fans.

I think I already said something about the preponderance of US Northeast shows likely being a matter of quicker travel times, certainly quicker than if they go to where you or I live. If you're going out on a quick jaunt (and that is pretty much all they have done since the spring tour last year) of a short run of shows, then it makes sense not to expend a lot of time and money in travel.

There are festivals, and then there are festivals. Some are done well, and some quite simply suck. Not in the good way, either. My guess - only a guess - as to why they are doing as many festivals now is that festivals are probably pretty easy for them. They would likely be able to travel really light, since they could use the lights and sound equipment already there at the festival. There's no need for any promotional efforts on their part, because it's all done by the festival's promo people. And since festivals attract more than just one band's established fans, they get a chance to play their music for some new ears, again, without really having to make the effort on their own to attract those new ears.

And you are quite right about the shorter set length. Sucks for everyone who wants to hear more of them, but easier on them. In terms of cost/benefit ratios and bottom lines and all that sort of thing, festivals are probably an economically smart move on their part, especially when they are still focusing on those short, swift forays and not yet on the long, grinding "for real" tour.

Give the other bands you hear at those festivals the benefit of a fair listen, though. You never know when you might find something you like.

The Irish festival thing has caught my notice too. You're right, it is a change. But if you noticed, Carbon Leaf is playing Celtic/Irish festivals too, and their music is even farther removed from that sound than GBS's. I am going to guess again, and I am going with pragmatics again. Irish/Celtic festivals often have alcohol-company sponsors and alcohol companies have deep pockets. I think these gigs pay well, same when it comes to the casino shows (casinos have their own deep pockets). And it could be difficult for GBS to get booked into some of the more "mainstream" festivals, especially in the States; of course, the more Irish festivals they play, the more difficult that is going to become....vicious circle syndrome.

At least they have Molson as their very own show on familiar and previously conquered ground. I am really looking forward to that Molson show. I want to see Alan perform Oh Yeah at Molson...along with Tonight and Straight To Hell and Walk On The Moon. I'd really like to hear Sean do a new tune or two too.

What's intriguing me more than these summer-jaunt shows is how long the "real" tour is apparently being delayed, especially in relation to the CD-release date. If the new GBS CD really does come out on June 21, it does seem a bit puzzling at first glance that a number of months would go by before they seriously toured that CD in their major purchasing market. If they don't tour the US till fall and then Canada in the winter, that's quite a delay.

Whenever some odd scheduling blip like that happens, my first assumption is usually that there is some personal reason for delaying a tour past what would seem to be a more-normal start date. But there could be other possibilities, speaking purely speculatively of course. One thing that I've been thinking about recently is what Alan said about some of the songs on this new CD being completely unlike anything GBS has ever done before. If they really thought that what they've created is that much of a departure from what their largest fan base expects from them, it might be really frigging smart to break those folks in gradually to the new CD over a period of time before playing a whole tour's worth of shows...release a single or two up front, then the CD. Now play your showpiece Molson show for the 8,000 or so most faithful fans in the heart of your kingdom. And then, instead of kicking of a fullbore tour right away, back off a bit and let them get used to the CD. Maybe release another single or two. Play more festival gigs. Then do a US run of shows in the fall.

By the time you get back to that largest market in the winter, they should be well-used to the music and maybe ready to enjoy what you have created today instead of only wanting to hear what you created yesterday.

It's not all that far removed from how they handled Something Beautiful, which was itself seen by some fans as being different because there was so little trad on it. They released that CD in Feb and did a short run of Canadian CD-release shows, then they did a US tour and some summer festival-type dates. It wasn't till around the fall that they toured that CD in Canada. A bit longer of a delay this time perhaps (kind of depends on when one thinks "winter" is), which might (again, speculation only) indicate a bit more of a variance from entrenched expectations.

All of which sounds really exciting to me. As long as I get to hear their music, I can deal with hearing it at an Irish festival.