Blue Rodeo, Lewiston, NY (7/15/08)
A few days ago I got asked if I could go do a Blue Rodeo gig in Buffalo. I thought about it for a couple seconds and decided it wasn't such a bad thing to be able to add some Candian Musical Royalty to my CV. Duh. So, at 8am this morning, I hopped in cab, met a car downtown, and started the drive to Buffalo.
I was a pretty painless trip to get there, border was easy, which is always nice. We did get there a little late, but no big deal. The band wasn't actually coming for soundcheck, which can be nice sometimes, or a little scary. I wasn't too worried as the regular crew was there to help get things as close as possible, but it's always a little weird to do your first show with someone and not get a chance to go over things with them.
The afternoon went pretty smoothly and we had a fair bit of downtime to relax. The Lewiston Artpark is in a pretty nice setting, along a cliff near Niagara Falls, so it was nice to sit along the edge and just look around. Before too long, the band did show up, and I literally only had a chance to say "Hi, nice to meet you" before the show started.
Once it got going, it went pretty well. Everyone seemed pretty happy, there were no disasters, and before I knew it, it was all over and the band was heading back to Toronto. It's funny that I really didn't talk to them at all, but apparently that's a good thing.
We went back to the hotel and had a quick drink at the bar. Entertainment was provided by a rambling government worker from Las Vegas who knew all the answers to the most difficult questions in life. Among the topics covered was an attempt to explain Blue Rodeo's popularity in Canada and why it was different in the US, all the while not knowing that his audience was the tour manager and monitor engineer... It was pretty classic...
I was a pretty painless trip to get there, border was easy, which is always nice. We did get there a little late, but no big deal. The band wasn't actually coming for soundcheck, which can be nice sometimes, or a little scary. I wasn't too worried as the regular crew was there to help get things as close as possible, but it's always a little weird to do your first show with someone and not get a chance to go over things with them.
The afternoon went pretty smoothly and we had a fair bit of downtime to relax. The Lewiston Artpark is in a pretty nice setting, along a cliff near Niagara Falls, so it was nice to sit along the edge and just look around. Before too long, the band did show up, and I literally only had a chance to say "Hi, nice to meet you" before the show started.
Once it got going, it went pretty well. Everyone seemed pretty happy, there were no disasters, and before I knew it, it was all over and the band was heading back to Toronto. It's funny that I really didn't talk to them at all, but apparently that's a good thing.
We went back to the hotel and had a quick drink at the bar. Entertainment was provided by a rambling government worker from Las Vegas who knew all the answers to the most difficult questions in life. Among the topics covered was an attempt to explain Blue Rodeo's popularity in Canada and why it was different in the US, all the while not knowing that his audience was the tour manager and monitor engineer... It was pretty classic...
posted by t. at 4:14 PM
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