My sister, her friend Nadia and I got to the concert at about 7:45, and we got in line. We were really close to the front of the line, but we were worried, because my friend Amber was supposed to meet us, but she wasn't there yet. So then, the line started moving, so we had to get out of it, because Amber wasn't there yet, and I had her ticket. So then, we walked to the back, and the security guards were like "weren't you guys at the front of the line??" and I'm like "yeah, but we have to wait for my FRIKKIN friend!" and he goes "fikkin fiend?!" and I'm like "yeah, try saying that 10 times fast!" As we were walking back, two people from the Clumsy Congress called out to me, and said "hey! are you on the CC?!" and i'm like "YEAH!" and it turned out that they were (potatogirlNYC) and (SilverTouch), which was pretty cool. So then we just talked to them for a bit, and I saw Amber's car pulling into the parking lot, and so she ran to come meet us, and we ended up being like, the last people in there!
So then, we're walking past the merchandise table, and I just happened to glance inside a box, and I noticed the back of one of j englishman's shirts, and I pointed them out to Amber. So I asked the lady "umm...why do you have j. englishman's shirts?!" And she told us that they must've been left overs from the last tour. Then, I met someone else from the CC (eolmph), aka Emily.
So then, we were touring around the place for a good place to stand, and we ended up finding a spot in the front row, towards the left side of the stage, right in front of the speakers. It was perfect, because we could see everything from where we were, but we knew that it would be very loud!
Templar went on first. I'd never heard their stuff before, but they seemed really cool. They reminded me of a cross between Orgy and Finger 11 at certain points during the show. Their sound wasn't that great though. The bass drum was VERY loud, and it distorted the rest of their sound at some points. But still, it was very cool. During their entire set, I kept on seeing this guy who looked like Brent (who does sound/lights 'n stuff for j. englishman). Then, when they were taking down the instruments after Templar finished, he went on stage, and i saw him in the light, and it WAS Brent! So me and Amber went over to the side of the stage and screamed "BRENT!" and he's like "oh hey guys!" and he came over and talked to us, but then he had to run, because he was doing the lights for Limblifter, and he told us he'd come find us after he was done.
Limblifter went on at around 10pm. They played a mix of singles, and non-singles, old and new songs. The crowd didn't appear to be into them though, which was sad, because Limblifter played very well. Their sound was pretty good, except for little things that could've been tweaked a bit to make them sound better. (But then again, sound at the Warehouse isn't that great, usually). Limblifter played pretty much all of their "hits" - Wake Up To The Sun, Arial vs. Lotus, Screwed It Up, and they closed the set with Vicious. After Limblifter was done, Brent came over and talked to us for a bit. Then Amber and I decided to go to the washroom really quickly before Edwin went on, and we ran into Emily, who told us that she'd just seen j. So after that, we were on a mission to look for j!
We got back to our spots, and it was just about time for Edwin to go on. Then the lights went dim, and everyone started cheering. At first, it sounded like the opening to Theories, which wouldn't surprise me, because they every time I've seen Edwin, he's opened with Theories, but he played Shotgun first this time! After Shotgun, he played Theories. Both songs sounded awesome! Throughout the show, Edwin kept on using segues to lead into the next song, which i found to be very hilarious, like, before he played Amazing, he said something about how "it feels amazing to be playing in Toronto tonight" or, before trippin' he said "I love playing in Toronto, cause it's my hometown, and I just love to be trippin' around downtown"
Then, he says "this is the part of the show that some of you are going to love, and some of you are going to hate. This used to be an original song, and now it's a cover!" and he played One More Astronaut! A lot of the crowd seemed like they didn't really know Edwin from his IME days, and there were only a few people singing to this song. When he went to play the bongos during this song, I was playing the same rhythm as him on my sister's shoulders (I'm a drummer...i do that ALL the time!) and the drums were set up on an angle, pointing towards the general area where we were standing. So Edwin notices me tapping the rhythm on my sister's shoulders, and he kinda looks over at Ron, and they both smiled.
They played all the songs from Another Spin Around The Sun. I was so happy when I heard the opening notes to my favourite song, Better Than This, after he'd told the story about how this song was about having your heart broken. It sounded awesome! Another song that sounded great was Take Me Anywhere. After they'd played just about every song on the album, they went offstage. I told everyone that I was with to scream "LEVITATE" when he came back for the encore, because i *REALLY* wanted to hear him play this song.
So he came back for the encore, and the first song he played was LEVITATE!! There were very few people in the audience who actually knew this song, but I screamed SO loud when I heard them play this! I sang ALL the words to this song SO loudly, then, at one point, Edwin's walking down the stage in my direction, and he notices me singing all the words, so he comes right over to where I was standing, looks me straight in the eye and sings to me, and I sang right back at him! it was SO cool!! After they finished that song, Edwin says "I'm going to play a song now. It's from the cd, but it doesn't appear in the track listing. I don't usually play this song, but so many people have asked me to, so I thought I would. It's called Another Drink" This song was SO cute! At the part where he says "2 tequila" he was looking at me, so i put up 2 fingers, just as he had, and he laughed. Then they played their last song, which was a cover of Magic Carpet Ride. (the security guard who was standing in front of me seemed to like this song a lot! *L*) So, once again, many of the people in there didn't know the words to this song, and Edwin kinda glanced over in our direction, and sang to us again, because me and my sister were singing all the words back at him. This song sounded AMAZING!
After Magic Carpet Ride, the lights went back on, signalling that the show was over. After about 5 minutes, I noticed Ron was standing behind the gate area, near the stage. I wanted to go over and talk to him, but by the time I'd gotten there, he had gone backstage. So then, I noticed Brent again, but I didn't talk to him, because he was talking to some other people. Then I saw some friends of mine from school, Elise, Lauren, Crissy and Sammy. So I told them that j. was around here somewhere, and Lauren's like "he's right there! want to introduce us to him, Katie?" so I'm like "Sure!" So we walked over to where j. was standing with Ian (his bass player) and another guy, and I just kinda stood next to j. and he's like "Katie!!! hi! how are you?" and he gave me a squeeze. Then he looked over and saw Amber, and he's like "Hi Amber!" So then I said "these are my friends, they wanted me to introduce you to them" and i said "this is Elise, Sammy, Crissy, Lauren, Nadia and my sister!" and then he's like "whoa! i hope there's not a quiz on that later!" Then he looks over to my sister and he's like "whoa...you guys do NOT look like sisters!" So then Elise, Lauren 'n them had to leave, so I was talking to j. a bit about the show.
Then I noticed Amber talking to Matt (who's a friend of theirs that i'd met at the horseshoe show) and we were just talking about studio stuff, because I was telling him that I wanted to get into audio production eventually. So we talked about that for like, 5 minutes. Then we went over and talked to Dave (j's drummer) and we talked about my site and stuff like that, and j. came over and talked with us for a bit. Then the security guards were kinda coming around to check for who had passes to be there. Matt tried to get us passes, but the "will-call" lady wasn't there. So then we just kinda talked to everyone for a little while, and my sister and Nadia had taken off on us, and we had no idea where they were. Then, we had to leave, and we saw my sister waiting for us at the door. So, they made me go home, but Amber stayed a little longer to try and talk to Edwin outside. All in all, it was an awesome show!