|
'I heart The Ladies' Road Trip Ed Robertson is the hottest man alive! I think I actually swooned listening to him croon the lyrics to 'For You'. There's something about a man with an electric guitar that gets me every time. Hotness. And he sings, is exceptionally musically talented, is obviously intelligent but just as obviously still has his little kid humor and enthusiasm for his work. Also, the biceps tattoo. Sigh. He's number one on my list of 5 freebies (which is currently a list of one, I'm not good at this game).I must admit that Steven Page is also a very attractive man, and damn can he sing!, and Jim Creeggan has killer pipes (meaning his exceedingly buff arms and not his singing voice which, while I'm sure it is lovely, I have never heard individually), again also something about a man that plays an upright bass. Okay, starting at the beginning: Smacked and I took a road-trip down to Cowtown to see BNL at the Saddledome with Raisin. After the fastest service ever from Joey Tomatoes we arrived at the Saddledome to find actually really fantastic and non-crowded parking. The Raisin had never been to a concert before and was sick with the flu so we really wanted her to have a good experience despite being sick. We missed most of the opening bands, checked out the merchandise table where I purchased an excellent shirt that combined two of my loves: BNL and boggle, and found a dude with the coolest shirt ever that I am absolutely going to buy and Smacked has already ordered (but I won't spoil it for her by telling you what it is yet). Also, I want an 'Asthma is Sexy' T-shirt from the same place. Kick-heinie! Soon we were racing (okay, hobbling quickly as my knee is still buggered) down the stairs in the dark to arrive at our seats just in time for the opening strains of 'Maybe Katie'. Highlights of the show (for me) included: Someone (probably Steven Page) poking Kevin Hearn's whammy bar (I also really like that sentence, I'm soooooo juvenile) Tyler Stewart's facial expressions during 'Roadrunner' Acoustic version of 'One Week' Explanation and additional video footage for 'War on Drugs' Smacked telling me that 'Another Postcard' is about email right before they performed it. That girl is so damned smart, she is absolutely right! Again hotness by Ed. Damn that man can sing at warp speed! Choreography and dry-land synchronized swimming by the Ladies during 'Shopping'. Includes shopping carts. Jim Creeggan's bass solo - a rocked-out hauntingly familiar tune (the name eludes me at this time) that brought the Saddledome to its collective feet screaming and cheering. I'll bet his parent's never expected that when they sent him to bass lessons as a child. Extended discussion between Steven and Ed during 'If I had $1,000,000' about the relative merits of solar power vs. nuclear power for the refrigerator in their tree fort. 'If the trees get in the way of my solar panels I'll cut the damn trees down. I'm not an environmentalist, I'm a technologist'. Steven Page belting out an aria after singing for 3 hours. Holy man! Who has that left in their voice after 3 hours of performing? He's my hero! The discovery that, unbeknownst to me, I am a long-time Ladies fan, I had thought I was just a bandwagon jumper but apparently the bandwagon was newly built when I hopped on and scooched for bum space. The first concert I ever attended was the BNL concert in Leduc, AB in 1994 (I think). I sat in the 5th row and marveled that this was what a concert was like (I was disappointed by many following concerts by other groups after having such a treat for my first). Crowd highlights included: The crazy-dancing guy in the row ahead of us who actually did the girly knee-bent shimmy-thing, a common hot-girl-at-the-bar move, and cracked up Raisin and I. The honest-to-god 7-foot tall man that stood in front of us for about 3 songs. He was actually wearing an 'I love the Ladies' farmer hat. He strongly reminded me of the guy from Happy Gillmore with the nail in his head. You know the one. When the superdrunk girl beside Smacked moved to a different row. Honestly, how can you enjoy a concert when you're that tanked. And who would want to miss this concert? Top 10 things that I love about the Ladies (in honor of my 10th year of loving the Ladies): 1. Clever Lyrics ('Something that you heard while you were sleeping left you Shaken while he stirred') 2. They write all of own their songs. 3. They all play a variety of instruments (including, as listed on Gordon, the Creeggans play "Secret Noises"). 4. Their high energy shows. This one featured a ramp up one side of the stage across the back and down the other which all of them ran across many times during the show. 5. Their random rap-style seemingly improvised crazy-ass songs for concert only. 6. Their generally spot-on but subtle socio/political commentary (in my very limited opinion). 7. Canadian. Whoo! 8. A sometimes Top-40 band whose instrument listings include: mandolin, accordion, saw, "funky mouth" (wtf?) and guest appearances by the flugelhorn, bagpipes, banjo and "The Jimmy Crack Horns" (I have no idea what that means but it made me laugh!) 9. Again with the hotness (but I don't love them for their bodies, I love them for their minds). 10. I can't help myself. Sorry for the not-so coherent entry. I should also mention that Smacked is an excellent road trip companion. She picks good car snacks, understands about studying for concerts, believes that the music defines the road trip (I agree), supports the preventative pee, is a fantastic listener and stimulates both highly intelligent and fluffy conversation, as appropriate. Thanks for an awesome time, BNL, Smacked (when can we do this again?) and Raisin (I miss you). 2004-04-03 || 12:38 a.m. |
