My poor ears…

Today (well, yesterday to be entirely accurate) was the SARS concert– Concert for Toronto. A whole host of bands were playing in the two biggest venues in Toronto and I was really, really excited to go to the show. Since Our Lady Peace was playing, I naturally invited Kristin to come watch with me 🙂 Although things were a little rushed and even distressing towards the last couple of days before the show, it turned out to work out well for everyone. Thank God!

Let me start out with the very beginning of the day. I wake up for work late (by 45 minutes.. d’oh!) and I hurry to shower and brush my teeth. I keep in mind that I have an email from Kristin with a phone number I should bring along. Rush rush rush: out the door, and down to the car (which I miraculously borrowed for the day.. Hey there’s a first for everything! Thanks, Dad!!) and zoom to work. I arrive at work only to realize that I didn’t copy down that phone number. D’oh again! Work is dull as usualy, but at 10am, I go to Ticketmaster to try and land Radiohead tickets. Nope… not even 20 minutes after they went on sale, ticket quality turned to poo. I wasn’t willing to dish out some $70 to be ridiculously far back. Somewhat dejected, the rest of the work day lulls by with the promise of seeing Kristin again keeping me excited.

12:30 and work’s done. I head downtown on the highway, and traffic is absolutely horrendous. I get off and take city streets, and that was equally miserable. Needless to say, getting downtown took a lot longer than originally anticipated. Finally, I get to the downtown core at about 1:20, 10 minutes before I was supposed to meet Kristin. The first three attempts at a parking lot were greeted with the omnious “Lot Full” sign. Blah. Finally I decide to go to the SkyDome and use their parking services (much to the dismay of my wallet). By then, I’m late. (Sorry, K!!)

Run run run… up the stairs, and nearly falling UP the stairs twice. Yeah.. smooth. I emerge into the gorgeous day a couple of gates away from the meeting point. Unfortunately, I was surrounded by mobs of people and wouldn’t have a chance finding Kristin inside the crowd. I walk slowly looking every which way, taking notice to a girl running towards me, her smile beaming. Ahh, success! We head to the gate, enter, and wait around for the concert to start.

And now, the review:

Swollen Members started off the concert, and, if there is any one word that I can say about these guys, it’s simply amazing. These guys are so talented and their ability to write unique, meaningful songs is incredible. I can’t wait for the opportunity to see these guys again; they stole the show.

Next came Glenn Lewis from the ACC. His voice was really bad, and he paled in comparison to Swollen Members. Next!

Sum41 came on stage and played their hits. I was astonished by their maturity and demeanour. That lead singer of theirs is actually quite intelligent!

Remy Shand performed next via the simulcast. I am really lucky to have gone to the show because I got introduced to the fantastic and inspirational music of his. He put on a quality show!!

Finally, it came time for Our Lady Peace to hit the stage! I was really disappointed with this performance; the music was pretty bad and nothing really stuck out as being exceptionally good. The crowd was pretty dead for these guys…

From the ACC, Jann Arden took to the stage. She tried to be funny, but failed miserably. Her music wasn’t much better than her attempts at humour.

The last act that we saw (in near entirety) was Avril Lavigne. If anyone has ever said that she’s really good live, take it with a grain of salt: her voice was off key, and there wasn’t anything that brought her show to life.

Now if you’ll do me the favour of taking the exact opposite of everything I said in this review, that’d be great!! I will put it very bluntly… Swollen Members is the worst group I’ve ever seen live; they seemed to have played one long, continuous, crappy song. Glenn Lewis has a great voice; if I was into that kinda music, I’d probably listen to him more. Sum41, mediocre with their music, acted like a bunch of twelve year olds. Remy Shand got unnecessarily worked up with his crappy music. He was groovin like he was much more than a sub-par performer. OLP was really, really good. Although Raine was a little off key to start, he got a lot better as he warmed up. The music stayed close to album versions (they played songs from Naveed to Gravity, including one that we’ve never heard before), though drumming was particularly good. My personal favourite was Starseed + Life. Kristin’s would probably be Clumsy 😛 Jann Arden talked a lot more than the others.. she had a duet with Sarah McLachlan which was really good, too. She’s also the only one that was able to make everyone laugh. Repeatedly. Finally came Avril. My gosh, she can sing: she hit every note (even those really high, piercing ones that you can hear for HOURS after the show) without any signs of trouble. Furthermore, she was the only one who, from what I noticed, played different versions of songs (i.e. not in the same style as what has been released). Kudos to her on that. Oh, and I should mention that she did indeed play Sk8ter Boi, much to my embarassment and Kristin’s enjoyment. That was actually kinda fun cuz it brought back some.. interesting.. memories. 🙂

By the time 6:30 rolled around, we had to go since Kristin had to catch the train back home (snif). Finding the car required asking one brainless employee, asking another group of employees, and enduring a very hostile elevator operator lady. Holy! Thus concluded the best (and loudest) part of my day. Best part of the past little while, too.

After I dropped Kristin off, I made my way through stifling traffic to Paul’s barbeque. I didn’t eat or drink much, and spent most of the evening chatting it up with my old buddies from St. Mike’s… all the while, I had an annoying, persistant, high-pitched staticy noise in my ears…

I can’t wait until next time… 🙂

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