Sabrina and I went to see the lovely girls of Dala in concert at the Aeolian Hall, with Adam Crossley as the opening act.

Adam Crossley was… WELL. He came on stage, started playing that beautiful grand piano, started singing, and my heart melted a little bit. And then a little more. And then when he covered “I’ve Got You (Under my Skin)” it melted a whole heck of a lot more, and I was officially in love. (Excuse me, Michael Bublé, I do love you, but your version of that song has got nothing to Adam Crossley’s version. No offense. I still do love you though, honest!) But this version – first of all the grand piano. And then Adam’s voice. And then the bridge. And them I died a little bit. Oh, goodness.

And even though he said his voice was not doing too well due to having to pretend he was a bear the entire day before, it was still brilliant.

He finished off with “Beautiful World,” which I’ve found a video of at a different performance. A gorgeous song:

After Adam Crossley finished, Dala was up. Now, according to Sabrina I’ve committed the worst sin imaginable by only owning their most recent album (Everyone is Someone). I’ve never seen them in concert before. But after last night, I’m going to need to get all of their albums and they have officially been added to the list of “people I need to see in concert every single time they are touring near me.”

They were totally brilliant and blew me away completely. Positively gorgeous voices and both girls are such talented musicians – guitar, piano, ukulele, oh goodness! The songs that I knew that they played were SO much more enjoyable live than on the CD (as is usually the case for me), which is hard to imagine because I love all their songs on Everyone is Someone so much. And the other stuff they played was just as fabulous. Some of their new songs, oh! This one, “Lennon/McCartney”! Loved loved loved!

And because I am seriously obsessed with their song “Levi Blues,” here’s another video:

What I like so much about these lesser known musicians that I go see is that they are so great with the crowd in between songs. That interaction is definitely one of the most enjoyable parts of the shows in a lot of cases, and unfortunately some of the larger-named groups I’ve seen just don’t seem to have that same relationship with their audience. The two girls in Dala were up on stage joking and just looking to be having such a good time during the whole show. It was awesome.

So yes, definitely highly enjoyable. Fell in love with Adam Crossley. Fell more in love with Dala. And oh yay. Such fun!

I went with my mom, and we had some of the best seats. It was the RBC theatre (about 1/3 the size of the actual arena). We were sitting in the first row of the lower level (not the ground floor seating), in the closest seats in that row to the stage. And right beside the aisle. It was seriously so great – we didn’t have to worry about people standing in front of us and we were still close enough to see EVERYTHING that was going on on stage. (This was almost exactly what we saw, only we were closer to the ground level.)

So, Spirit of the West opened for GBS. Which was pretty darn awesome. I will admit that I only know the one song that SotW sings (Home for a Rest), but after seeing them perform I’m going to be getting at least one of their albums. They had so much energy (were jumping around the stage constantly), had some awesome drinking songs and were very funny.

(Funny side note about Home for a Rest…. Every time I’ve heard it for the past few years, it has made me think about Harry Potter as it mentions Charing Cross Road, and we all know that’s where the Leaky Cauldron is located.)

And so, onto GBS. They started with Donkey Riding, which was awesome. Totally got me in the mood to be wowed (yet again) by their awesomeness. They sang less songs from Fortune’s Favour this time around compared to when I saw them in September (which is surprising, considering the backdrop was all the artwork from that album), but I’m okay with that as it meant they got to sing so many other well-loved songs. They did, however, manage to sing my favourite song from that album (Here and Now, which has an awesome bridge in it), and that made me happy. Every time I see them on stage, I love them a little bit more. I really didn’t think that would be possible, but I really do. And I especially love the bantering that Sean & Alan have going on during the whole show. Those two are absolutely hilarious.

Highlights of the Evening:

• the audience singing a song from The Elephant Show.
• 70s-80s rock medley is back! (Haven’t done if for the past few concerts I’ve seen them do.)
• Alan Doyle has a beard and I rather love it. A lot.
• During the encore, Spirit of the West joined Great Big Sea… The Old Black Rum was one of the songs that was sung, and the lead singer of SotW totally had to read all of the lyrics off a sheet of paper. So much fun.

Sadly, I forgot my camera on my kitchen table, so do not have any pictures to commemorate the evening, but no doubt it will live on in my memory. Another sad note. Or happy note. Depending. Alan Doyle is going to be in a movie (YAY), and if I recall correctly, they’re going to be filming it soon. Which means it will probably be a while before they are touring again (BOO).

And now for something completely different. Kristina tagged me. The rules are to list 7 things I love and then to tag 7 people who will play along

And so, seven things that I love:

1. Great Big Sea. And Great Big Sea concerts. And Great Big Sea drinking songs. Eep!
2. Geeky sci-fi tv shows and movies. Like Stargate, Firefly, Doctor Who and Torchwood!
3. Summer. I simply cannot wait for summer food, summer weather and summer festivals.
4. The smell of old books. And old bookstores.
5. Sleeping.
6. Designing web pages when IE decides it wants to co-operate and act like a browser should.
7. Going to the theatre to see awesome plays. Like The Drowsy Chaperone. Or Spamalot. Or anything Shakespearean.

And I am going to tag: Shannon, Katie, Erin, Rachel, Kelly, Nymeth and Joana.

The opening act was one Adam Crossley. He wasn’t bad. Enjoyable. Mellow. I wouldn’t buy his album, but I enjoyed watching and hearing him perform. Nothing really major stands out in my mind about him.

But Emm Gryner… man, seeing her perform live just reinforced in my mind how brilliantly talented this woman is. She can sing, play the piano, play guitar, write gorgeous lyrics… and is just as enjoyable to listen to on CD as she is live. Definitely a brilliant show, and I hope I get the chance to see her again.

There’s not really anything I can say about their concert that I haven’t said before – they put on an amazing show. I liked their music before seeing them in concert the first time, but after that first time, I realized and appreciated just how talented these guys are. They are brilliant live. So many musicians don’t sound as fabulous in concert as they do on CD, but these boys sound so much better. You can feel the excitement of the music in the air, and oh, when they start singing the a cappella stuff… brilliant. And not to mention that Sean McCann kills me just a little bit every time I hear him do General Taylor live. Oh man, can he sing. It just … I can’t even form words thinking about it.

The new album, Fortune’s Favour has grown on me so much the past month, so it was awesome to hear them performing some of the new songs from the album. Though, I will admit that I was highly disappointed that they did not do Run Run Away and a few other classics of theirs. They also didn’t do anything from The Hard and the Easy, which still maintains its position as my favourite GBS album. It felt like the whole concert was shorter all-around, in fact, but maybe I was just enjoying myself so much that it felt like it flew by.

I have a few pictures up on Facebook – you can view them here, but there are only 5 pictures in the album. They were the best of the ones I took. Unfortunately, there are none of Murray as he didn’t actually come to the side of the stage near me, and I have a hard time taking steady pictures when the camera is zoomed.

If you ever get a chance to see them in concert, DO IT. You will not regret it. (They said they are possibly going to be back in London in March, around St Patty’s day… Need to figure out when and whether I can get down there for it. Must. Go. Again!)

Our seats were closer to the stage this time than last, which was awesome. We were on the floor, about half way up the arena, and in the first row of a section – so there was no one directly in front of us. Which is great considering my mom and I usually have the luck of having a really tall person sitting immediately in front of us.

Naturally 7 was the opening act, and they were phenomenal. I’ve never seen an opening act get a standing ovation at a concert before, but they did. They call their style of music “vocal play” or something along those lines. They’re kind of a cappella, except they even make the sounds of instruments with their voices. So it sounded like they were playing the drums, guitars, harmonica, violin, and all the like, except it was just their voices. It was crazy. Insane. Amazing. The audience all seemed to love them, and they were so much fun. I’m definitely going to be getting on of their CDs in the future, and I’d highly recommend to anyone to have a listen.

As for Michael – he was amazing, as was expected. I think what I love most about seeing him in concert is the fact that he’s not just a musician – he’s an entertainer. I laughed more last night than I have in a long time, and almost prefer listening to him talk between sets than actually watching him sing. The way he interacts with the crowd is one of the best parts about seeing him live.

Various highlights of the show:

• He opened with my favourite song off the Call Me Irresponsible CD – I’m Your Man.
• He randomly sang about hockey a lot.
• After performing Everything, Buble decided there wasn’t enough testosterone in the show. . . and then proceeded to sing YMCA.
• Closed the show with Song For You, and sang the part after the instrumental solo without a microphone and we could still hear him almost perfectly.

So yeah, I’m going to be in a bit of a fangirl daze for the rest of the week, but it is totally worth it. Cannot wait until the next time he comes around on tour and I get to see him again.

I think the reason I love McKennitt’s music so much is the fact that it is music you can dream to. Not so much the stuff where she’s playing the piano (that brings other kinds of dreams, perhaps), but listening to her other music can lift the veil between our world and Middle Earth, Narnia, or other wonderful, magical worlds. It sets free your imagination and mind and lets you dream of different places and times. This was even more apparent in concert than it is when listening to her albums.

The concert felt so short, but they must have played about 2 1/2 hours. It was definitely over way too quickly, and if I ever get another chance to see her, I certainly won’t hesitate a second about whether I should or not. It would definitely be worth it to see her in concert numerous times.

(On a slightly related note, she sang The Highwayman, and I couldn’t remember – does Anne read that in the first miniseries, or the second? She also sang The Lady of Shalott, so it was a bit of an Anne-ish evening.)