I have been fortunate enough during my time here to visit all the sights associated with Great Big Sea. Alan Doyle tweets affectionately his love of Leo's fish and chips. It was one of my first stops on this fan pilgrimage. I sat in a booth with a picture of the boys in their younger days signed hanging on the wall along with other famous people who ate there for example the Barenaked Ladies eating yummy fish and chips but made the big mistake of not ordering the gravy and dressing. I have also been to The Duke,The Ship, walked past Erin's (Bob Hallett's pub), Fred's Records, down George Street, visited Petty Harbour the home town of Alan Doyle, the LSPU Hall where Russell Crowe and friends did the first Indoor Garden Party Shows, Memorial University (where a poster of an early GBS show hangs on the wall) and walked up Signal Hill. St John's and its people are glorious indeed.
The loyal faithful fans gathered at the Mile One Centre in the early evening on the 29 April 2013 to celebrate twenty years of Great Big Sea. It was a full house as one would expect from the people of St John's. People came from St John's, all over Newfoundland, the Canadian mainland and overseas to listen to music and celebrated with the boys in the band. It was interesting watching the meet and greet among fans, the music of this fabulous band uniting and bringing people together who probably only see each other at Great Big Sea concerts.
From the moment they stepped on stage they thrilled the audience. The crowd was certainly diverse including the more mature folks who enjoy a sit down concert to the young group who love dancing and drinking. But pretty soon every one regardless of age was up dancing in their seats. They played most of their old favourites like The Night Pat Murphy Died, Ordinary Day, Lukey's Boat, Consequence Free and Donkey Riding pleasing the die hard fans and playing some new music like Heart of Hearts and Live This Life while continuing to evolve and move on successfully with the crowd loving it.
The home crowd and the big stage enabled Great Big Sea to shine. After years and weeks on the road together on the bus for this tour the members of the band Alan Doyle, Sean McCann, Bob Hallett, Murray Foster and Kris McFarlane still had a lot of friendship and love for each other. While Alan Doyle is clearly the showman of the band the other members each held their own as talented singers and musicians playing an incredible diverse range of instruments and shining in their own right not to be left out.
There were two encores as one would expect. The first with talented and funny trumpet player Paddy Joe Boyle and the second with former member Darrell Power. The boys graciously acknowledging his contribution and welcoming him to the stage, leaving the audience wanting more.
I don't often agree with Lynda Elstad or @lyndahere in particular about her observations about the audience at Great Big Sea concerts but with these observations she has written about in her blog. While it is great the band has attracted some younger people to concerts and their music, seated in front of us were three young guys who arrived really drunk. They drunk, well skulled what seemed like a drink for every song and could hardly stand up by the end of the concert. They hung around in a group like teenage boys spending more time checking out girls and the audience, checking their phones and taking the occasional video than watching the band perform and listening to the music. Guys maybe time next the pub may be a better venue for you.
It is a shame that Great Big Sea don't play as often as they should in their home town and as often as their home town would like. It leaves their fans not taking them for granted and appreciating them when they do play. It also allows room for other new and emerging talents to develop and take the stage and the tradition that is Newfoundland music to evolve and continue.
Photo by staff photographer Ted Pritchard at The Chronicle Herald in Halifax. The Halifax show was the previous night. (No copyright infringement intended).
The photographs on this site are not mine. They were taken from the Internet. No copyright infringement intended.
