For Those About To Rock...

Before I say anything else, I would just like to say: "OILERS BEAT DETROIT! WOOOOOOOO!" Now that I've got that out of my system (for now), I can begin telling you about the great time I had yesterday. You see, I got my hands on four tickets to the Our Lady Peace show at Rexall Place last night, and skipped work to head to the city with a couple good friends of mine. The trip their was rather uneventful, but I will say this much: Traffic circles are pretty much the worst invention EVER! (being the small town boy that I am). Moving on. I enjoyed a marvelous dinner at the Bul-Go-Gi House, a Korean restaurant located not far from Whyte Ave. The food was delicious, the company was delightful, and the chop-sticks were unmanageable. Try as I might, I could not master them like Mr. Myogi on the Karate Kid, and after giving it my noblest of efforts, gave up and resorted to the good ol' fork. But enough about that, as I could go on about food for hours.

We then headed off to Rexall Place for the concert, which began rather disappointly. The first two opening bands, Pedestrian and Jets Overhead, were a let-down. Not only could we not understand a word that they sang, but the music generally put us to sleep, not the kind of stuff to energize a crowd before the headlining band. The third band was much better, as Neverending White Lights took to the stage as the final opening band. Although their music was still fairly mellow, it was enjoyable. All of these bands attempted to get the crowd going about the huge Oilers victory the previous night, but being as at least one of the bands was from Canucks territory, it didn't really work all that well. And finally, it was time for Our Lady Peace to hit the stage, and WOW, what an incredible show they put on. I will share some of the highlights of the night with you.

As the tour is promoting OLP's latest album "Healthy In Paranoid Times", I kind of half expected them to just play their new stuff, which in my opinion is not as good as their earlier stuff. However, I was wrong, as they played both old and new tunes. I think that they played most of their major hits, including: Is Anybody Home?, Innocent, Superman's Dead, Clumsy, Where Are You?, Angels Losing Sleep, Somewhere Out There, 4 a.m., and many more. Needless to say, the crowd loved it.

I have never seen a band that seems to sincerely appreciate their fans in the way that OLP does. During one of the songs, as the guitarist was ripping up a solo, I heard cheering circling through the stadium like a wave. I looked over, and saw a guy in a red shirt running down the aisle around Rexall in the second tier of seating. I thought, so some crazy fan is doing something stupid, but then I looked again and realized that it was none other than Raine Maida, the lead singer from OLP! To see the lead singer of a great band in the upper levels of seating with the fans was priceless, but things got even better. He came around to where we were, and stopped directly in front of us (about two rows in front of us, or about 6 feet or so), and finished singing the song from right in front of us. If any of you happen to notice Steph's hand turning black and growing fungus, it because she actually reached out and touched Raine Maida, and as a result refuses to wash her hand. GROSS! Anyways, that was probably the best part of the show for us.

Another thing that I thought was pretty cool was for one of the songs, the band went and grabbed about twenty or thirty fans from the audience and brought them on stage behind the band, in an attempt to make it feel like a small club. They then let the crowd sing the next song (which was 4 a.m., by the way), while they accompanied all of us on their instruments.

Apparently not all artists are against downloading music on the internet. Before Our Lady Peace proceeded to play a brand new, un-released song, the grabbed some guys i-pod or cell phone with a microphone from the audience, and recorded this un-released song for him, giving him instructions to post it on the internet for everybody to download. What a classy move!

Anways, the concert, coupled with the Oilers victory over the mighty Red Wings, has made a great start to the week. I will be posting some pictures of the show as soon as I get them. So, for those about to rock... WE SALUTE YOU!