Our Lady Peace

if you went to an OLP concert would you be able to differentiate them from their opening band?

the concert started at 7pm sharp and as the lights dimmed and people started walking on stage, we were puzzled that the john labatt centre was only half full, but we cheered our hearts out anyway. then the stage lights came on and this guy who clearly was not raine maida was standing on stage. oh, right, the opening band. okay, so we sit through the 20-minute set and some of us clapped politely while others heckled (*cough* dor) and called for OLP. after a short break the lights dimmed again and we think "this is it! here they come!" but it was yet another opening band. by the time they were finished it was 8 o'clock. alright, now it's time for OLP, right? that's what we thought, too. so the lights dim for the third time and everyone's cheering and the band starts playing. we don't recognize the song. but it's gotta be OLP, so we think "they must be introducing a new song" and groove a bit and clap along. then they do another new song, and another and then finally the singer starts talking and introduces himself as daniel. huh? does OLP have another lead singer we don't know about? where's raine? what's happening? partway through the group's 3rd or 4th song a guy who is clearly raine maida walks on stage and joins the group. finally, it begins to dawn on us that this was a THIRD opening band for OLP. it took us forever to figure it out, being the doofuses that we are. afterwards we realized the singer didn't really sound like raine and the stage setup didn't look like OLP (there was a keyboard at the front of the stage with bunches of flowers on it), and yet we didn't fully piece it together until late into their set. we were so certain the next band MUST be OLP (who has three opening bands??) that we fooled ourselves into believing it was them.

anyway, it was a good concert when it finally started at 9. i liked how they mixed up their songs a bit, putting the lyrics of one into the music of another and changing the melody, etc. there was a ton of audience interaction--a bunch of people even got to stand on stage behind the band. raine walked out into the crowd a few times and everyone tried to touch him. he took a picture of himself with someone's camera. he even asked someone to record on their mp3 a new song the band was about to perform and then upload it for everyone to download afterwards. i think it was called "kiss on the mouth".

another item of note was the girl sitting directly in front of us. the whole night she kept climbing up and down the seats and dancing w/ no inhibitions whatsoever. then we also smelled pot and after awhile we pieced it together and figured she must have been high.

all in all a great day yesterday. prior to the concert, i had spent the day in london w/ dor's friends from western. they're a fun-loving bunch and i really enjoyed hanging out with them. had some nice chats. lillian and i also thought back to last december when i was visiting and how the two of us sat on the couch so worried about speech-language pathology and wondering if that was God's plan for us. six months later everything has fallen into place and we wonder why we were so anxious. silly us!