22 October 1999
This was the very first concert of the 99-00
tour.
It was a dinner-concert at the Rustik restaurant
in Châteauguay near Montreal.
Quite an event, but the bad thing was that
they were still serving food
after Roch had started singing, which was
quite disturbing.
And the organization was not very good -
for weeks they had promised us seats in
front of the stage,
and we ended up almost in the back of the
hall !
Still, we were offered an incredible show
with a wide range of old and new songs.
The first part of the show consisted of
six "acoustic" songs,
performed by Roch with his guitar.
Only one or two of his musicians joined
him at a time,
which made this first part very intimate.
The second part was more "electric",
displaying a great performance by the seven
musicians that accompanied Roch.
But in spite of the large band and the state-of-the-art
lightshow,
Roch remained up-close and talked to the
audience on many occasions,
leaving a lot of room for improvisation
and showing us that he's not only a great
singer but that he also has a great sense of humor
and is a real down-to-earth kind of person
- "un simple gars".
In contrast to the concerts in Europe,
he signed autographs during the show
and even allowed some select fans (including
me, *grin*) to hug or kiss him on the cheek.
After the show, Roch offered us an autograph
session,
and many people were lucky to meet his sweetheart
Kimberly.
What an exciting evening after not seeing
him in concert for so long!
