Monday

Make Poverty History!

Man oh Man, was the Live 8 concert on Saturday ever amazing. I had started off the day deciding to keep a running journal of the days events, which I would then simply transcribe at a later date, but um... I got only as far as writing some brief bit on the subway about how bananas are evil, which really had nothing to do with the concert itself, so I will not bore you with it. But upon arrival to Park Place in Barrie just as the first act was starting, it became plainly obvious that I would look like an idiot doing anything BUT watch what was going on on the stage. This leaves me with not but my memories of the days events. Please bear with me as A LOT went on during our 9 hour stint in the sun.

Hmmm... where to start? I guess I could start off by saying the entire day exceeded any expectations I may have had. We missed most of Tom Cochrane... but, oh well. Sam Roberts was great.

Brian Adams on the other hand... a little bit miffed. Dude, you had 3 songs to do. Of those three songs, you could have chosen any number of your much beloved hits; the songs that people ACTUALLY know. But no, you chose to do some of your newer songs which, although a few of your die hard fans know and which may be good, are not the songs that 34,995 out of the 35,000 people in attendance wanted to hear. Would a little 'Summer of '69" have killed you? I think not... anyhoo... next.

Blah, Blah, Blah, some crazy Quebecois (sorry J) bongo band who sounded like they had gotten together just that morning reinforced my opinion that some bands just should not perform live. Simple Plan added a little youth power to the day. Surprises for me of the day were Bruce Cockburn and Gordon Lightfoot who received some very warm applause from the crowd. Unlike Celine Dion who was welcomed in a most non-Canadian-like way by the crowd...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It might have had something to do with the fact that Great Big Sea seemed to have been cut short so that we could go live to Las Vegas... but it most likely was due to the fact that Canada is very happy to have pawned Celine off to our neighbours to the south... hahahahahaha suckers... it was still rude though. A performer volunteering their time is still a performer volunteering their time, no matter who they are... Unless you are Hootie and the Blowfish... you guys can kiss my... back to our regular programming...

The Hip were super, Jann Arden so-so. I'm not a huge Blue Rodeo fan, but they were good as well.

I do have a message to send out to Motley Crue and any other band out there who does this. IF you have to ASK the crowd to put their hands up in the air repeatedly and/or sing along and/or get excited in general... it means that the crowd is not really super excited to see you. If I want to put my hands up in the air, I will... it's an automatic thing, something you can't help, like say, with the Tragically Hip or the Bare Naked Ladies. Us Canadians can't help put out hands up and cheer and sing along to all the songs word for word. We know their songs better than the national anthem. You didn't hear them asking for adoration... we bestowed it willingly. Motley Crue... I don't know the words to your songs... so please do not make me sing them.

BNL great. Neil Young great. Jet, Deep Purple, Our Lady Peace... really, really good! Tom green and Dan Ackroyd... not on nearly enough. The surprise of the day for me though, was DMC... formerly Run DMC who has since been trying to make a comeback as a rapper/rocker type dude. Whatever. You could play whatever the honk you want to play as long as I get a little Walk This Way action... And indeed I did, but with added bonuses. Not only was DMC singling alongside the hottie black dude from CSI, but the mini-Steven Tyler drummer guy from Aerosmith came out for WTW. It was fab. Who knew that I knew all the words to Walk This Way? Not I. But apparently I do. I'm thinking that it will be sometime before I get to demonstrate that particular little nugget again. So sad.

I'm sure I have forgotten oodles... Girls??? Bueller???

Ta,
Bea

6 comments:

mollyblogger said...

It's unfortunate that these little rock concerts will ultimately do very little at the Summit... but sounds like you had a good time at least.

Yeah Jann Arden? Lil bit of a flop, I'd say. zzzzzzzzzz....

p.s. why are bananas evil? I'm dying to know.

Anonymous said...

I am so happy for you that you got to be there - I was thinking about you on Sat. I enjoyed watching it on tv, but unfortunately the highlights for me were from the shows elsewhere in the world. i did however very much enjoy the ladies and the hip. do you remember the concert we went to at thunderbird and especially the part where the hip were playing? oh man... how did we get through uni after all of that debauchery!!??

Beatrice Petty said...

Wee,

I do indeed remember that concert (remember I couldn't walk down the embankment that we were sitting on???), as well as the many other ones we went to to see The Hip...

And your guess is as good as mine when it comes to how we made it through Uni... although 2 things do come to mind... Summer School and the 5-year plan... we are so SMRT.

Anonymous said...

and by the time we got to (ahem) our 5th year, we realized that we actually could get up on time to make it to the odd 11:30am class and that hey, you could actually crack the text book BEFORE the eve of the exam and you didn't actually HAVE to stay up all night drinking jolt cola trying to learn the entire semester in one night whilst still only receiving 27% on your (i mean my) Econ 101 final!

Beatrice Petty said...

good times!

Anonymous said...

Well, there was also The Guess Who who gave one of the best performances. Nothing beat singing O'Canada at the end of the day with all the bands up there on stage - Man, was I proud to be Canadian! What a great day - I'm so glad to have shared it with my 2 close buds :)