Once Upon a Bookshelf

Last night my mom and I had the pleasure of seeing Michael Buble in concert (again). We saw him the first time he came to town, after the release of It’s Time and Buble is one of those musicians that I plan on seeing over and over and over again whenever I get the chance. That is how good he is in concert.

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.

On Saturday night, my mother and I went to see Loreena McKennitt in concert at the JLC. This is the first time I’ve seen her in concert, and I must admit that I was completely blown away. Her voice is almost too perfect. Seriously. It’s gorgeous. But it wasn’t just that - the musicians were all brilliant too. What was really nice was the fact that although I only have a small selection of what she’s done, I could recognize most of it.

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.)