Great Big Sea concert

Well, that was fun.  In a twenty-four hour period I spent ten hours in the car, the last two of them getting sick.  But it was all for a worthwhile cause.

My girl is, for various and several reasons, very fond of music.  She has an eclectic taste, from Saw Doctors to bluegrass to 80's music to Irish music.  She's taught me more about music than I'd ever known, which isn't all that hard, frankly, but I still marvel at her ability to have every song lyric to every song ever recorded since 1950 memorized and harmonized.  She's amazing.

One of her favorite groups, in fact, is Great Big Sea.  A group of just guys from Newfoundland, they specialize in reviving and putting a modern spin on Irish shanties.  Given my predilection for Irish music, this immediately appealed to me.  Karen loves 'em.

So months ago, prior to my move eastward, she bought tickets to see them on a Wednesday night.  Not wanting to disappoint her or eat the money for the tickets, I trekked west to join her for the night.  Great Big Sea didn't disappoint.

While we were waiting the hour and a half prior to the show starting -- more on that anon -- Karen let me know about the secret she'd been hinting at:  The group has a song called Good People (which I'd never heard before) and in connection with the song had sent selected members an email inviting them to send in photos that they'd use in the show.  Well, of course, you just knew that Karen not only would send one of us in but that it would get chosen to be in the show.  How she was able to fold or bend the digital image so that it'd be chosen escapes me, but she did it.  So when the song began in the second set, we anxiously waited for it to pop up -- she eager with anticipation, me dreading to see my face plastered on a 10'x10' screen in front of a few hundred of my closest strangers.  When it did appear toward the end of the song -- which I knew it would because I'm wearing a weird, tassled toreador hat and effecting my goofiest photograph smile -- Karen whooped it up in triumph while I tried to find a hole in which to hide.  That was more difficult because by the time it appeared, Karen had dutifully informed the rest of the Great Big Sea cult in our immediate vicinity of her impending triumph, so she received hearty congratulations from them.

What I enjoyed the most about the evening, however, was watching my girl dance to the Canadians' music.  She jumped around and clapped like she was a pubescent teen at a Justin Bieber concert, only she wasn't crying or reaching out to the band so they could touch her.  Watching her enjoy herself was worth more than the price of admission for me and I will always cherish the sight of her singing and bopping around like a teenager.  I even laughed when she called out for Bob the musician, who vaguely resembles Richard Attenborough:

(You decide; I don't say this out of spite, but to me he does resemble him, especially from afar and in the body; both are, shall we say, portly.  Karen says, though, that Bob has really nice skin.  How she knows this exactly is beyond me.  All I know is that everytime I try to type Bob's name I type Bog...I wonder if that's a Freudian slip).

The only thing that was less than stellar about the evening was the venue.  Although I swore I'd never return to the House of Blues in Chicago, I did because it's the only venue Great Big Sea uses when they're in town.  Yes, it has some cachet because of the whole Blue Brothers connection and because countless cool acts have played there.  None of that matters.  What matters are seats, realistic starting times, no bait and switch when it comes to who's playing and when they're starting.  We arrived at 6.30p for doors that were to open at 7.00p and were pleasantly surprised when they opened at 6.55p due to the cold, only to find out that the show didn't start until 8.30p.  And we had no seats, because we refused to spend $150 on food prior to the show.  At least Bill and Kevin were kind enough to get a stool for Karen to use since she recently had surgery, and we ended up sharing that.  This was infintely better than the Plain White T's experience we had and an upgrade over the first Great Big Sea concert we attended there.  If you're headed to the House of Blues in Chicago, beware.  If I averaged our three visits on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a 3.5, and only because this time we were treated respectfully and they gave Karen a chair.

Be that all as it may, if you ever get the chance, check out Great Big Sea.  They're a lot of fun, the music's great and it's great value for the money.

And if your girl likes them, even better.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles