Our Lady Peace at the Phoenix was quite an exclusive event. The only way to get into this concert was by winning tickets through the OLP fan club, internet contests, or radio contests, or else, you could try your luck at getting a pair of the very few wristbands which were set aside to sell outside the club on the day of the show for $15.00 each. I was fortunate enough to get on the guestlist for this show. The club itself seemed quite unprofessional in dealing with the crowd of people. All the people on the guestlist were told to be at the club at 6pm, and they would be let in, but the security guards and people who worked at the club decided that they weren’t going to let anyone in (and we were in the middle of a Winter Storm Warning issued by Environment Canada, which meant that it was VERY cold outside, and some people were waiting there for more than 12 hours). Just before 7pm they finally decided to let people in, but instead of letting the people on the guestlist in first, they let the people with wristbands in, which was also quite unfair, because usually people on the guestlist have privileges. Finally, I get into the place, with my sister, and we managed to snag ourselves a spot which is pretty close to the front, on the left-hand side of the stage (couldn’t get center, or right up at the front, because there were too many people who got in before me)
After what seemed like an eternity of waiting (it was about 8pm at this time), finally the lights went dim, and we heard Ray Kurzweil’s voice over the speakers, playing part of the hidden track at the end of OLP’s new cd, Spiritual Machines. (Ray Kurzweil wrote the book “The Age Of Spiritual Machines”, which inspired the new cd, which they are touring in support of). Then the band came onto the stage, greeted by thunderous applause by the crowd. They began with “Middle of Yesterday”, and then played “Right Behind You (Mafia)” (which, coincidentally is my new favourite song). The first half of the concert was dominated by selections from Spiritual Machines. They played almost all the songs on the album. The only song I don’t remember hearing is “All My Friends.” Through the whole concert, Raine had this thing that he was using to distort his voice that was like one of those P.A. systems that bus drivers used, which gave this really cool effect to his voice. Then, after they finished playing their new songs, they played a mix of the songs from their other three cds.
The first song they played was Julia (which is my absolute all time favourite song, being rivaled only by Right Behind You at this point). I was standing right in front of Mike Turner, OLP’s guitarist, and I smiled and waved at him (we know each other through an Internet group called the Clumsy Congress, and we’ve also met a few times) and he smiled back at me. When they played Thief, Raine told the story of a guy out in BC whose mother went to go see the band during a soundcheck recently. At first the band thought that the lady was trying to stop the show from happening, so they tried to do everything they could to annoy her (like playing rap music loudly over the speakers) and when she asked Raine who was in charge, he directed her to their manager, Eric. Their manager told them later that the woman came to see OLP, because they were her son’s favourite band. Her son was in the hospital, because he had been in a car accident, and he had just come out of a coma that he’d been in for 2 and a half months. They went to go visit him, and they signed some stuff for him. They felt that signing stuff just wasn’t enough though, so after they found out that Thief was his favourite song on Happiness, they decided that they would dedicate it to him every night on this tour. Other favourites that they played included Superman’s Dead, Clumsy, Naveed, Supersattelite, One Man Army, Is Anybody Home?, Automatic Flowers, Carnival, and others. Raine asked if anyone had anything that they wanted to talk about, and people were yelling out random things, including two of my friends who yelled out “JEFF BUCKLEY!” So Raine talked about what a great musician Jeff was. Then he asked if anyone had anything else that they wanted to talk about, and someone yelled out “THE BEATLES!” And Raine said, “Ooh! The Beatles! We’ll get back to them later!” They played Stealing Babies right before they left the stage, but it was very interesting, because they all left the stage at separate times. Raine left first, after he finished singing, then Mike and Duncan left after they played for a few minutes, leaving only Jamie and Jeremy on stage. The two of them played for about 5 minutes, then Jamie left, and Jeremy was alone on stage, doing a drum solo for at least 10 minutes! It was SO awesome! Then Jeremy left the stage.
The crowd chanted “OLP! OLP!” for a few minutes and finally Raine came back on stage with his acoustic guitar. He got his microphone stand, and adjusted it so that the microphone was pointing out into the crowd. He then started to play the first few chords in 4am, and the crowd proceeded to sing the rest of the song. After the song was over, Raine applauded the crowd. The rest of the band joined him on stage. He told us that we had been a great audience, and that he really felt as though it was the true fans that were in the room. Then he reverted back to the Beatles comment made earlier, and he talked about how it was the 20th anniversary of John Lennon’s death last Friday. He said that the next song that they were going to play, they had only played once before, in Winnipeg, last Friday night. They then proceeded to play an absolutely incredible version of Imagine. It moved me to tears, it was so incredible! The last song they played that night was Starseed. When they played this song, the crowd was jumping so much that the speakers were shaking, and it looked as though they were going to fall. Mike even noticed it from on stage! After the show, I talked to a few of my other friends that I’d seen around, and then I made my way toward the doors. The people who run the Phoenix were being very rude again, and they tried to make us leave as quickly as possible. I bought myself a brand new “Spiritual Machines” OLP shirt, and went home. The concert was one of my favourite Our Lady Peace concerts ever, rivaled only by the Intimate and Interactive show at MuchMusic, because I thought that one had a great atmosphere, and it was really cool that the band came down to talk to their fans in between the commercial breaks.