I was super excited heading into CMW weekend, because I found out that the Our Lady Peace shows were open to the first 50 wristband holders that showed up at Massey Hall. It was also super cool that once I got my wristband for the shows, the seats were down on the floor, pretty close to the front! I was expecting to be way up in the 2nd balcony, so this was a pleasant surprise!)
Short backstory: OLP was my absolute FAVOURITE band throughout my teen years. I was a crazy-die-hard fan. They fell out of favour with me when guitarist Mike Turner - now in the band Crash Karma - left OLP. Now, I've seen OLP in the time since Mike left the band (and in fact, told the longer version of this story here on my blog during last year's CMW recap), and I wasn't really *THAT* into them anymore - however these shows were bound to be different. They were playing two nights at Massey Hall - the first night, they played their entire Clumsy album, followed by an intermission and another set of songs from all the other albums, and the second night was Spiritual Machines, with another set.
I also got to hang out with a whole bunch of my friends from the "Clumsy Congress" days - it truly reminded me of being 16 again.
The Clumsy night was probably one of my favourite Our Lady Peace shows to date (and that says a lot, because I've probably seen them more than 20 times over the years). They sounded REALLY great, and it was amazing to hear the entire album from start to finish. The second set was also well-received, and I found myself even somewhat enjoying a few of the new songs. (Paper Moon is probably the best song I've heard them put out since I stopped listening). I found myself REALLY missing Mike Turner though - especially at the "OO-Wee-OO-OO-Wee-OO" part of Is Anybody Home, and some of my other favourite guitar licks & background vocals.
Spiritual Machines was also awesome. It's one of my favourite albums, and I loved hearing their interpretations of certain songs (like The Wonderful Future, which I don't believe they've ever played live, before this tour!). It seemed to be a little more difficult for the crowd to get into this show - at least, the people around me, who were all CMW wristband holders. Maybe they didn't realize that the first set would be entirely Spiritual Machines. Lots of people sitting down for this set.
There were also less people who showed up to get wristband tickets, so I was able to sneak two of my friends who had tickets up in the balcony down to come sit with me. It was much better being able to share the show with my friends! The best part of this show was rushing up to the front of the stage (when Raine called for everyone to move forward - in an orderly fashion), and really feeling like a part of the shows - just like back in the day.
Here's some shots of the two nights:
The show was opened by two bands, Desperate Union and New Teeth. Both bands were good. Hard to say much more than that this long after the show, because it's not quite fresh in my head anymore. But I do remember enjoying them. And it was nice because I was able to move around to get shots from various angles (Not so much during 100 Monkeys' set)
When 100 Monkeys began to set up their gear, the girls in the crowd got a little more crazy. The set was really cool, I hadn't realized before the show that each of the members of the band played all the various instruments. They would up and rotate every few songs. The music was wicked. I haven't gotten around to editing all my 100 Monkeys photos yet, so there will be more on Flickr in the future, but for now...
Check out more from Canadian Music Week '10 right here
