Where to begin... Like Alan said, "There'll only be one July 27th, 1998 in your entire life." And we treated the concert that way! It was the hottest day yet this summer in the Comox Valley - or at least it felt like it. What you need to know: Gates opened at 4 (we arrived at 3:30), GBS started at 6. Where: Saratoga Speedway.... Picture this: Hot tarmac, no shade, no blankets - basically the shirts on our backs! From our post outside the gates waiting to get in, we could hear Bob warming up his fiddle. (That held us over for awhile!) Upon arrival at the front gates, we were told: NO CAMERAS, NO VIDEO CAMERAS, NO OUTSIDE DRINKS, NO BOOZE (Funnily enough, some people with marijuana seemed to sneak through!) Claire made a mad dash to return her camera to the car, and then realized that she had forgotten her CD covers in the camera bag... in the car. Imagine the tension - Brenna panicking to save a spot as the rest of the group moved on! We immediately zeroed in on the stage as we saw some people already sitting in our prime front row seats. Not to be outdone, we rushed down there and set up our own camp right between Alan and Sean in the 3rd row. GREAT...now only 2 hours to go until it started. WOOHOO!! :-) The next thing on our agenda was assigning someone to go get WATER!!!!! Bridget's bud accepted the mission and returned promptly with our lifesaving water. We were all a little worried since all the people around us were sitting (and some in deck chairs with BIG umbrella's), but that didn't last long after the boys took the stage! They started with Process Man, and Brenna & Bridget held up their sign they had made. It said "YOU ROCK OUR ROCK" in fluorescent orange and green! (Very effective). Alan acknowledged it almost immediately with a HUGE smile and Brenna & Bridget were both flying high for the rest of the set (as they both swear "He was looking at us the WHOLE time!!!!") hee hee. When they were about to sing "Old Black Rum", Sean told Alan not to sing that one - he was making some kind of joke, but we didn't get it (neither apparently did Alan - he just looked confused) - but their faces were too funny! At one point during the night, Alan did his KISS tongue movement thingy. Of course, as they always do on the West Coast, they compared Vancouver Island to Newfoundland...and Alan had to get his product smurch in there - but urged us NOT to buy it since the NFLD fishery is doing SO well! (He said this with rolled eyes)...of course this earned him crowd support since our fishery is failing too! But they did say they really liked the island. Alan was VERY into doing actions to the songs tonight...especially Little Beggarman (he did the "who should awaken but the woman of the house[laid his head on his hands as though sleeping] with a white spotted apron and a calico blouse[picked at his shirt]") . We felt really "special" {sarcasm} at the beginning of Mari-Mac because when Sean asked us to sing it with him, and when he started, we didn't need any prompting to sing it back to them, and Sean said "it was the best return he'd heard all day!" with kind of an amazed/grinning kinda look on his face. They sang Consequence Free(where Alan did his rolled eye thing at "lose my Catholic conscience"), but not Ferryland Sealer from their upcoming album. Ooops, back to the beginning again (we just remembered something)...when Alan was doing his slow beginning to Process Man, Darrell walked over and pretended Alan had a crank in his back and tried to wind him up...the crowd started to laugh and Alan wondered what on earth was going on, so was trying to twist around to see what Darrell was doing and sing at the same time. OK...for all those people who will be wondering what they were wearing: Darrell: white T-shirt, black shorts (yes, I said shorts!), Alan: green shirt and black shorts, Sean: blue shirt and black shorts, Bob: a burgundy shirt and tan shorts. Sorry I can't tell you what shoes they had on (although I think Alan and Sean had their hiking boot shoes on)...basically because I couldn't see their feet. The boys were in high spirits, and were continually laughing on the stage, especially when the crowd were praising them(by screams and shouts) for anything they did on stage. We were a little worried that they might tone down their performance because of the heat, but we weren't disappointed, they still did their dancing around on stage - albeit not as much - but enough to keep us happy! We got to sing quite a bit of stuff on our own since the boys realized A LOT of the crowd really knew the words (at least the front of the crowd!). The boys played for just over an hour, and came back for a 3 song encore....Excursion around the Bay, Old Brown's Daughter, and Auntie Mary. What a wonderful set they played...nowhere near long enough - but what GBS concert is??? :-) I guess we should say something about the other performers eh?? Hee hee. Jann Arden came on next, and played some really good tunes. Alan apparently thought so as he was hanging out at the side of the stage. The security was WAY too strict, and wouldn't allow anyone to stand near the wall to the backstage area, although Bridget and Kristy did get a wave from Alan. On the way home, I had to stop for gas, so both Brenna and I chatted up the gas attendants and told them all about the concert! :-) (see even after the concert we can't stop praising the performance!!)
--Claire Saunders, Brenna and Bridget O'Grady