Once Upon a Bookshelf

Last night, I fell in love. Twice.

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!

Why yes, I DID see Great Big Sea again last week! At the JLC in London, which is kind of silly as they were in Kitchener the night before, and Kitchener is SO MUCH closer to me. But it was so worth the extreme lack of sleep I got the following night because … well, it’s GBS and it’s ALWAYS worth it.

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.

Last night, Shannon and I went to see the LOVELY Emm Gryner in concert. I’ve been a fan of Emm for quite a number of years, but this is the first time that I’ve gotten the opportunity to see her performing live, and I have to say that it was quite fabulous.

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.