I had SUCH an amazing time last night at the Barenaked Ladies concert!  And I am back with a full report! And boy do I mean FULL!!!

 DISCLAIMER: This post is going to be painfully long and contain a million pictures. Proceed at your own risk. Author cannot be held liable for boredom caused by reading this ridiculously long saga.

Operation Camera Smuggle

On my ticket it was clearly marked “no cameras allowed.” But I had to have something to scrap! So I brought my camera with me and when I went to pick up Allison I got Curt to take a picture of us holding our tickets.

I really thought this would be the only photo I’d get all night. I left the camera in the car when we got to the arena. 

So we go in, find our seats, and as we are settling in I notice camera flashes going off all around me. And the ushers are staring right at these people and doing nothing. What the heck!? I thought no cameras were allowed!!! This clearly required investigation  so Allison and I went into covert operation mode. I sent her to go schmooze with an usher and get the inside scoop.

Allison: Umm . .. so . .. are cameras allowed tonight?

Usher: Oh, yeah. Of course. No problem. Cameras allowed. As long as it doesn’t have a removable lens.

Allison: Cool . . I guess we’ll go back to the car and get our camera then.

Usher: Well . . . you might have a hard time. Once they scan you in with your ticket, they’re not supposed to let you out and back in again.

Hmm. Okay. That  could pose a problem!

Not ones to accept defeat, we quickly headed for the door anyway. We had 30 minutes before the show started and we figured it’s worth a shot, right? As we approached the exits we put on our best sweet and innocent oh-but-I-just-forgot-my-cellphone-in-the-car-and-I-have-to-call-my-kids faces and after a brief exchange the very kind usher let us right through! SCORE! One obstacle down, one more to go.

Yes that’s right, there was another. My camera has a removable lens!!! I think the logic behind that restriction is that they don’t want professional photographers snapping away in there. Surely they don’t mean clueless saps like me who have fancy cameras without actually knowing how to use them?  Now in theory, this shouldn’t have been an obstacle at all because it’s so dark in there once the show starts, who would actually be able to see my camera? Right?  Wrong. As you know I was sitting right in the first row and unfortunately that meant there was a security guard firmly planted DIRECTLY in front of me! That made me a tad nervous. Would he tell me I couldn’t take pics? Would he confiscate my camera if I did!? To be sure, I tested him during the opening act. Snuck the camera out and took a shot . . . and . . .NOTHING! He didn’t even bat an eye.

Operation Camera Smuggle = SUCCESS!!!

A Barenaked Blast!!!

After a brief intermission the Ladies burst out onto the stage and I can’t even tell you how quick their whole set went. It was SO fun and SO entertaining it felt like it was done in 5 minutes even though they played for 2 hours.  Their songs were interspersed with hilarious ad-lib raps and banter and the whole night they were just all over the stage dancing around and rocking out.  I could go on forever about it so let’s just get on with the pics, shall we?

They did a few songs “unplugged”. Tyler got the bongos out and they all huddled around one microphone. In my opinion they are at their best when they do this because they are so good at harmonizing and doing the acapella/acoustic thing. They sang Enid like this. One of my fave songs and definitely a highlight of the night!

I tried to catch a few of Steve’s dance moves. He was constantly jumping around and striking poses. Too funny!

Then at one point, they all suddenly dropped their instruments and broke out into this boy-band dance routine à-la-N’Sync and it was SO cute! I can’t remember at the moment what song it was for . .. but it will come back to me LOL!

In the song “Pinch Me” there is a line that goes “I just made you say underwear” and at that moment, the guy sitting next to me threw a pair of underwear onto the stage. Steve saw it and humoured us by putting them on his guitar.

And, possibly the coolest part of the night was when Steve smiled for my camera! He was standing right in front of me and saw me snapping away and kindly obliged.

And since I think I’ve shown a hundred Steve pics, let’s see the other guys. I tried to get a good shot of each of them.

 Ed:

Kevin:

Jim:

Tyler:

The Best Part of the Night

I have to say the biggest highlight for me was at the very end when they came out for a second encore and sang my all-time favourite song EVER: What A Good Boy. I have always thought that Steven Page has one of the best male voices I’ve ever heard. It’s very unique and very powerful and hearing him belt it out live (5 feet in front of me no less!) was just amazing. And I’m not even ashamed to admit that I almost cried LOL! It was THAT good! They actually have a live version of this song on their Rock Spectacle album so go download it on iTunes or something! I promise you won’t regret it!

 The Swag Station!

 Wanna see what I got!?

First I got this t-shirt. It says “Barenaked Ladies” on one side, then you follow the dotted line around to the back and it says “are me” (i.e. the title of their newest album)

And I also got the obligatory Concert Tour t-shirt. It’s cammo green and says B.L.A.M. on the front with the concert dates on the back. Kinda looks like this except mine’s plain green:

And Allison got this cool yellow one:

Barenaked on a Stick

Intrigued? So were we when we saw the poster adverising it! Here’s how it works. You pay $25 for a wristband before the show (which we each did!).

Then the show is recorded and downloaded onto USB memory sticks. So when it’s done you go back and trade in your wristband for a recorded audio version of the very concert you just attended! How stinking cool is that!? Too bad it didn’t work!!! Yep, we got there after the show and were told their system crashed. Very disapointing. You had the choice of getting your money refunded, or settling for a pre-packaged USB with the B.L.A.M. album and a few live things from previous shows. So I took that.

Hey it’s a 256 MB reusable drive, so why not!? Haven’t listened to it yet but I’m sure it will be great. And, they said if they were able to rescue the Ottawa show from their crashed system, that it would be available on their bootleg site. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Some Final Thoughts

 I went. I laughed. I sang. I cried. I got the t-shirt. It was the best $100 I’ve spent in a LONG time!!!

Here’s one last pic of Allison and I as we left the premises. The idea was to get the arena in the background but that didn’t happen apparently!

And with that . .. it’s time for a nap! I should be at work but I called in sick this morning.  I had every intention of being a soldier and toughing it out at work today. But by the time my head hit the pillow last night (after waiting in various line-ups at the arena, driving all the way back from Kanata, bringing Allison home, etc.) it was almost 2 a.m. So when my alarm went off 3.5 hours later my good intentions quickly evaporated. My throat is raw, my head is throbbing and I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus! I was already feeling a bit sickly yesterday though so this is probably just a cold coming out. I promise I’m not so much of a wimp that I can’t handle 1 measly all-nighter LOL!

Anyway, thanks for reading this far! Can you believe with all the photo resizing and everything it has taken me 3 HOURS to put this post together!?