|
|
|
14/03/09 -
JOHN LABATT CENTER, LONDON, ON
Review by Helen Barton:
I went to the London Ontario show on Saturday night and although
I don't really write reviews anymore, I thought I'd just put down
a few of my thoughts for you guys.
The good parts of the show, were really good. There were four highlights
in the set list - 'Lonely Nights', 'Take me back', 'Thought I'd
died and gone to heaven', and 'Hearts on fire'. 'Hearts on fire'
came with a brilliant guitar battle between Bryan and Keith, and
a quality piano solo from Gary. 'Thought I'd died' actually gave
me goosebumps in the middle when Bryan sang just by himself with
the whole crowd singing along; that was incredible.
The guys all seemed in really good moods, and from a personal point
of view I was chuffed to bits at the end when Bryan thanked all
the people who had come from abroad who he sees at a lot of shows,
and when he listed English as one of the nationalities, he pointed
at me. That really meant a lot to me :)
There were some aspects of the show, though, that I would've changed,
especially considering this was the last full band gig of the year
- I don't think they made the most of that, in ways that they could've
done. 'Its only love' was dropped for example, and as it was the
last gig with Keith for a while, it would've been fun to exploit
Keith to his full potential and that song is the one to do it in.
I also would've changed the balance of ballads vs. rockers and I
know that's a difficult one to call because all fans like different
aspects of Bryan's music. But personally I would've replaced 'Have
you ever really loved a woman' with 'Kids wanna rock', and I would've
included 'There'll never be another tonight' and 'She's only happy
when she's dancin'.
The show opened with the full band on the main stage. There was
no B-stage and the set list was exactly the same as Cyndee has listed
for Kingston a couple of nights before. I do prefer the gig to start
with the full band as it gets the energy going straightaway. 'Can't
stop' was the first song and it definitely had more effect with
the band blasting into it on the main stage, rather than Bryan starting
it acoustically on the B-stage.
'I thought I'd seen everything' was the only song played from '11',
which I thought was strange considering it's meant to be the tour
to promote the album, and all the merchandise had '11' on it...but
again I guess this is down to having 2 hours to put together a set
list and trying to include as many songs as the audience know and
love.
Overall I loved the show, but I didn't come out on as much of a
'high' as I did after the acoustic gig in Knoxville a couple of
months ago. For some reason I think the acoustic shows have more
'spark', and Bryan seems to 'come out of himself' as a performer
a whole lot more - talking a lot more, and daring to put into the
set list all sorts of random and rare songs. I would love to see
more of that, in the full band shows.
According to the tour diary on the official board he's going to
do acoustic shows for the rest of the year, and I get the impression
that's just 'where he's at' right now. What I'd love to see, is
the philosophy behind those shows (lots of talking and stories between
songs; lots of random changes to the set list), translated over
to the full band shows in the future.
Just a note on the venue in London. I have to say, I don't think
all-seated works for an arena show! It's the first time I've been
to a seated arena gig and somehow the atmosphere doesn't feel quite
the same when everyone isn't packed in like sardines! The seats
made everyone seem too spread out. Me and Sari left our seats when
the band came on, and stood second row between the front row and
the second row of seats, but we only lasted there for a few songs
before the people in the front row really took umbridge with us,
simply because 'we didn't have front row tickets'. We explained
that we didn't mean any harm and we just wanted to stand behind
them and enjoy the show. Then one woman turned around and said to
me, "you've got five seconds to move your ass out of here lady,
otherwise I'm gonna smack you!". She had her fist ready and everything.
I took that as my cue to leave!
My seat was in row 4, so that was ok anyway, in fact I had quite
a good view of the stage from there.
So there we go, just my few thoughts. I hope I wasn't too critical,
or too positive...I just wanted to give a neutral, balanced and
fair account of the gig from my perspective.
Setlist:
Can't Stop This Thing We Started
Somebody
Hearts on Fire
Please Forgive Me
18 Til I Die
Let's Make A Night To Remember
Back To You
Summer of '69
Everything I Do
Cuts Like A Knife
When You're Gone
Heaven
Lonely Nights
Take Me Back
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?
I Thought I'd Seen Everything
Run To You
The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You
Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven
Cloud #9
Straight From the Heart
All For Love
|
|
|
