As
the Barenaked Ladies Silverball Tour with Alan Doyle and The Beautiful Gypsies
winds its way from Vancouver through rural British Columbia and onto Alberta
journalists and photographs in the local areas been providing their readers and
the fans around the world with some wonderful reviews and photographs via their
newspaper’s webpages. However, these reviews and photographs differ from those
of the fans, mostly in their length and detail and have been a treat indeed for
those fans interested in finding out what is happening on the tour. They have kindly
been collected and circulated via social media and fan sites by the Barenaked
Ladies fans and I have collected some of them here and shared them on for
anyone interested.
There
were two interesting things about the professional reviews and photographs so
far. The first one was there was a noticeable absence of professional reviews
from local newspapers in Vancouver, the major city on the west coast of Canada,
well not yet anyway. The other interesting thing is there are some photographs
and nice words being allocated to Alan Doyle and the Beautiful Gypsies, the
support band on this tour. Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea have performed in
places like Prince George, Victoria and Kamloops, British Columbia over the
years. Alan Doyle mentioned recently on Twitter that he had performed in Kamloops
for example, over half a dozen or so times and they seem to have been taken him into their lives but also into the hearts of the local press. I have only copied the reviews
for Alan Doyle and The Beautiful Gypsies because of copyright reasons. All the
articles have been shared by legal means via my Google + page for those
interested in reading about the Barenaked Ladies and seeing the wonderful
photographs attached.
“The Barenaked Ladies + Alan Doyle & The Beautiful Gypsies @ Queen
Elizabeth Theatre October 21st 2015” posted October 26, 2015 byThere is a collection of some really nice photographs and a link to a
bootlegged video of Alan Doyle performing with the Barenaked Ladies ‘Lovers in
a Dangerous Time’ by I am happy to say a regular concert goer. I have
circulated the bootleg via my Google + page.
The reviewer writes about the bootlegging of the song
in one of the last paragraphs “ …Alan
Doyle came back out, brandishing one of those small stringed instruments from
earlier, a bouzouki. He added his playing and singing to the BNL cover of Bruce
Cockburn song “Lovers In A Dangerous Time,” a song that I still totally love
from them. Actually, it looks like someone recorded this at this very show –
check it out here. That’s not the
only one out there I’m sure, judging by the amount of camera phones being held
aloft for this one. “That’s Alan Doyle, and he is holy-shit good!,” applauded
Robertson as Doyle left the stage to wild cheers. “I can feel the struggle…” he
continued, noticing again how the audience would stand or sit rapidly.
The article contains quite a detailed description of
what happened for the interested fan who could not attend, the music played,
the storytelling, the local references and the interaction between the band and
the audience. I particularly liked the personal
story told by the reviewer about the Barenaked Ladies being the first grown up
concert he and his friend went to on their own. The reviewer wrote over 650
words on Alan Doyle and The Beautiful Gypsies alone.
“Right on
time, the lights dim, and Alan Doyle barrels out on stage like he’s at a pep
rally. The audience, clearly here just as much for him as for the headliners,
breaks into a hefty cheer. Doyle is followed by his bandmates, The Beautiful
Gypsies, cutting into the tune “I Can’t Dance Without You” as he summoned the
audience to continue to cheer and to dance (step-knowing or not). Of course,
this is a seated show, so the dancing room was limited, but pockets of people
around the room sprung up to shimmy along as best they could considering the
space. Doyle is affable as only a Maritimer can be, interacting with the room
and flinging accolades to his bandmates. He begins telling us that he’s still
on east coast time, meaning he woke up last night, and then went into Stanley
Park… at night… “which was a mistake. A bit sketchy. But when the sun rises
over the city, I can see why you love to live here.” He went on to tell us it
was his intent to make this night the biggest kitchen party in all of BC. He
just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, like if he had the means, he really
would invite the entire theatre’s worth of people back to the hotel after to
carry on the shindig. He will sometimes just settle down on the drum riser to
let one of his super talented band members have the spotlight. The set was rife
with solos from just about everyone.
Soon,
Doyle got nostalgic, talking about his first time in Vancouver with Great Big
Sea back in 1993. “I went down to… what is that called… English Bay?” He looks
over to enlist the help of local musician Kendel Carson, whose primary role is
the fiddle (as well as singing and guitar at times, and who must be the
hardest-working fiddler in the country with all the projects she’s involved in)
to make sure he’s got the name of the beach correct. “That’s the first time I
ever saw someone go into the ocean recreationally. You’ll never see that on a
Sunday morning in Petty Harbour [Newfoundland, where he’s from].” On a more
serious note, they then played the touching and sad song “Laying Down To
Perish,” based on a fisherman’s gaff, now in a Newfoundland museum, on which
four men, aware they were doomed in poor weather on the ice in 1917 and upset
less so about their impending fate than about their families thinking the men
may have abandoned them, carved their names and that phrase before setting it
adrift. The gaff made it home. The men, as far as I can see, did not, and were
never heard from again.
As the
show turns back towards a more uplifting vibe, I’m noticing there is a delightful
variety of tiny string instruments coming out intermittently. Before long, a
familiar Morse-code beeping sound sends a ruffle through the audience and
signals the start of huge Great Big Sea single “Ordinary Day.” “Thank God for
this song, I’ll tell you that right now,” admits Doyle. The audience is up now,
clapping and stomping along. I can actually feel the floor of the theatre
moving, which is pretty impressive, possibly terrifying. To end the set, Doyle
got the audience involved in some participation with his newer single
“1-2-3-4.” “When I say 1-2, you say 3-4. ONE TWO…,” and the audience responds
in kind with a hearty “THREE FOUR!” Yep, that’s a kitchen party atmosphere all
right. Doyle re-introduces his fantastic and lively band, then gets us all
revved up by telling us we want one more thing to bring the house down… and out
comes Ed Robertson from the Barenaked Ladies to introduce Doyle himself, and do
the little rap section and fade out, just like you’d see in the video for the
song. Talk about bringing down the house. You mean that was just the opening
act?!”
In
‘Kamloops This Week’ there is a wonderful, inclusive collection of photographs
taken of Alan Doyle and The Beautiful Gypsies (of all the band including Alan,
Kendel, Cory, Paul, Kris and Shehab) and the Barenaked Ladies as well. The
article “Photo Gallery: Barenaked Ladies and Alan Doyle live in
Kamloops” published on 26 October, 2015 has been circulated via
my Google + page for those interested in taking a look.
The Morning Star newspaper
in Okanagan also published a review in their entertainment section “Concert Review:
Barenaked Ladies treat their fans in the Okanagan.” by Heidi Forgo published on 27 October, 2015 and some nice photographs from Anita Forgo. The article has
been circulated on my Google + page.
“Opening
act Alan Doyle and the Beautiful Gypsies set the bar high as they got the crowd
to their feet with their rocking celtic sound, including past Great Big Sea
hits such as Wait and See, When
I'm Up I Can't Get Down, and Sea
of No Cares.
Not
counting on security from past days, Doyle threw in a handful of new catchy
tunes from his solo album, So Let's Go,
with the raspy toe tapping sounds that come with the combination of bass and
fiddle.
Especially
enjoyable was the soul touching ballad Perish
and Whiskey 1234, which
provided a quick pick-me-up.
Newcomer
Kendall Carson was born to play fiddle. She is a show stealer who is worthy of
watching solo or with the band. The pick of this band for an opening act
provided the perfect platform for the Barenaked Ladies to step onto."
