SETLIST
SETLIST
COMMENTS/FURTHER
INFORMATION
Submitted by Nancy Bouwma:
Bruce stepped onto the stage dressed in dark colours. I wondered for a moment if this would be a reflection of his mood. I was mistaken, he was light hearted and shared his captivating smile easily all evening.
Before he played Wondering Where The Lions Are, he asked if we (the audience) had partaken of enough beverages in the beautiful lounge at The Empire to put us in a singing mood. He then went on to say that he was sure some of us would be "wildly enthusiastic" about his next choice of song, while others should just fake it or follow along with those beside us. There was a good response from the mostly older crowd with many singing along. He then invited us to sing the next one with him although it may be tricky considering it was the beautiful instrumental, Jerusalem Poker.
My other favourite instrumental of the evening was The End Of All Rivers. This tune turned into an all out jazz session with Gary Craig and Julie Wolf both taking off in all kinds of directions. Gary had many intruments of percussion at his disposal, bells, gong, bongos, tubular bells, and every kind of cymbal going and he used them all expertly as always. Afterwards, Bruce went on to say that this song was from the Speechless album. His friend from the West coast thought that was a brilliant name for an instrumental album, until his 12 year old daughter commented that Hilary Duff also has an album of the same name. Bruce wondered if maybe they had more in common than he thought.
The highlight of the evening for me was Slow Down Fast, I love it on the album, but enjoyed it even more seeing Bruce do it in person. He put lots of gravel in his voice for this one and seemed to be playing with his vocalizations and enjoying it.
He ended the
show with Mystery, I thought he was looking around to see who was singing
along, many were. This is
such a great tune to
harmonize
with,
I think it may become the new Bruce anthem as time passes.
Of course the capacity crowd showed their appreciation by hooting
and hollering and whistling (that would be me) until we brought him
back
out to the stage.
He returned saying that he thanked us all for coming out and that
he appreciated the fact that we brought our hearts along with us,
then
he said that he
guessed we didn't have a choice but to bring along our hearts, he
said that he could
feel them this night. Then it started, the crowd shouted out random
requests and Bruce was open to hear what people were asking for.
One gal asked
if he would accept her request, he replied, "it depends which
denomination it's written on." She then responded with, "would
a ten do?" He
said that sounds pretty good. She ran up to the front of the stage
and started digging through her purse, all she had was a toonie.
Bruce did ask her what
she would like to hear and she requested Peggy's
Kitchen Wall. Bruce truly
did seem sorry to say that they hadn't practised that one in a long
while, so they could not play it. It was all very light hearted and
amusing to see
this woman running right up to the front of the stage. Others made
their requests from their seats and Bruce listened. He even returned
for a second
encore and played the most requested song of the night, All
The Diamonds.
It was a great
show, we were treated to a mix of old and new songs. Dust
And Diesel made
an appearance, I haven't
seen him do that one
at a show
for years. Bruce commented on the fact that this song arose from
his first trip
to a third world country and that it had such an affect on him
that it led to many other similar journeys.
The only new song I was wishing to hear was See
You Tomorrow. I
asked for it when he returned for the second encore, he said that
it was
the last
one on the list, but that I hadn't yelled as loud as the others
for the request
of All The Diamonds. He began retuning his guitar to play All
The Diamonds so I missed out this time, I'll remember to get my request in earlier
next
time!