( Pictures
here. )
So I went up to MSSU in Joplin last night to see Great Big Sea in concert.
Nobody WARNED me what a Newfoundland kitchen party is like. You GUYS. I wouldn't have worn heels if I'd known I was going to be jumping up and down all night!
But backing up: I was worried about arriving in time because I had checked the GBS message boards and found people who were driving THREE HUNDRED MILES to come to the show, and were talking about showing up to get in line three and four hours before the doors opened. I showed up an hour before they opened to find ... a handful of these fanatic groupies waiting, but other than that, no crowd. (Altogether I estimate there were probably about a thousand people there, maybe a little more. Not too shabby, Joplin.)
So I stood in line for an hour reading The Joy of Drinking by Barbara Holland and alternately eavesdropping on the conversations of the people in front of me, chatting it up with and receiving free music from a random celtic rock band member, and talking to a middle-aged accountant about World War Z: An oral history of the zombie war and her experiences seeing GBS in a hundred-year-old club in downtown Austen where she feared the floor would cave in from all the people dancing on it.
Also there were quite a few portly old gentlemen with large beards who stood around smoking pipes. I'm assuming this was the official authentic Newfoundland contingent, quite possibly with small flasks of whiskey hidden somewhere about their person.
So then the doors opened and I rushed in and sat down three rows from the front. At first I wondered if that might be a wee bit too close, but it turned out to be perfect as all the hard-core fans sat in about the first ten rows, and these were the rows which stood and clapped, danced, and sang along very loudly the entire concert. I felt just the tiniest bit sorry for all the casual fans and students who were just there for the credits sitting behind us, but not bad enough to sit down. It was awesome to be surrounded by the people who were really, really into the music.
While waiting for the show to start I pretended to read and eavesdropped on my neighbors, two of whom looked alarmingly like Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, and listened to them compared distances traveled, shows attended ... and critique the venue, the other fans, the programs, etc. It was amusing. Also I saw a vague smokish substances wafting across the stage and through a bit of texting discovered that this likely meant there was going to be LASERS which was .... interesting. Wrong on several levels, and yet in the end amazingly right?
See, I love this kind of music, but most of my experience with it is in recorded form, or possibly informal renfaire gigs, where people wander in and out and half-pay attention. Most of the proper concerts I've gone to are the sit-quietly-and-clap-sedately-between-pieces (but never between movements), and so when the lights went dark and then BOOM, there was an explosion of sound and light and the backdrop lit up with artwork from Fortune's Favor (I find the anatomy on that woman very interesting) and suddenly there they were, and the crowd rose as one (or at least everyone surrounding me) and started stomping and clapping and singing along to a rousing rendition of Donkey Riding, albeit a less bawdy version than I am used to, seeing as I learned it from pirates and all ... it was a very different experience than what I have experienced before. And we, the hardcore fans, stayed standing until the end of the evening.
I'm also used to concerts where cell phones are banned and you are instructed under no circumstances to record or photograph the event - I brought my camera just in case, but fully expected not to get a single picture. What a thrill to find performers who don't just tolerate cameras, but HAM IT UP for them. And they clearly fed off of audience participation and interaction - we up there in the front were fairly rowdy (there was quite a bit of spontaneous step-dancing going on and a fair amount of vertical movement; enthusiastic hand-clapping, food-stomping, and singing along which lasted throughout the entire show), but I think Alan would have been even happier if there had been bona fide dancing in the aisles.
During the first set Alan went over a coaxed a little one-year-old to join him on stage (holding him up high above his head so all could see - SO cute! the kid looked a little shell-shocked, but quite brave), but the sweetest bit was later on in the second set, when the guys started to notice the kid standing right up by the stage on the far left. He stood there during the entire concert, solemnly and intently watching the drummer, and imitating his every movement. At some point during the second set I saw Murray nodding his head to Kris, the drummer, making sure he'd noticed the boy, and a few minutes later Kris ran across the stage between songs to hand the boy his drumsticks. And for the rest of the show the boy played air-drums with real sticks. :)
Needless to say, the energy in that building was amazing. Even if the guy just down the row from me couldn't clap on the beat.
I have been at a bit of a loss as to how to describe the music, but I think they label themselves folk-rock, and so shall I. The evening was a nice mix of piratey/sea-faring shanties (the harmonies they have are superb, and Sean can play a mean bodhran) to real folk-rock, to a song or two of more full-on rock. Music ranging from 13th century English ballads to songs composed on the spot (a hilarious riff on some Janis Joplin songs).
Joplin, btw, is a city I am growing quite fond of. They have a Chick-fil-A, for one thing.
Their showmanship was awesome, but combined with their superior musicianship, well, it made them a band really worth seeing. They were coming off of a string of twelve shows in thirteen days, and you could tell they were really comfortable with the lineup and each other - everything was polished, but you could tell they were really having fun with it.
Sean truly has a celtic voice. Alan is such a rockstar at heart. Heehee.
I heard later than an older couple left after the first song, muttering about "this isn't what I thought it was going to be!" I'm sure they heard "folk music" and expected something mellow and homespun, and instead they got drums, lasers, and a lot of loud lyrics. lol.
What I can remember of the playlist:
Donkey Riding
Captain Kidd
Love Me Tonight
The Night that Paddy Murphy Died (oh ho ho ho, what a great sing-along)
When I'm Up
England
HelmutHead
Gideon Brown
Run Run Away
When I Am King
General Taylor
Scolding Wife
I'm A Rover
John Barbour
Consequence Free
Mari Mac (hahaha, love singing along to this one!)
Excursion Around the Bay
Fortune Set
Straight to Hell
Old Black Rum
Also at one point somebody brought out a disco ball. I'm not kidding.