Fare..Eat..Ales

It comes as no surprise that my first attempt at a post-covid concert was cancelled. After playing the night before in Toronto, ticket holders were sent an email explaining that Charlie Starr, the band’s lead singer and guitarist of Blackberry Smoke (a band I stumbled upon on Spotify six months earlier), contracted covid and couldn’t perform. The concert was pushed back a couple of months and thankfully was still scheduled for a Saturday night making it ideal for preconcert edibles and/or a few pints without regret the next day.

The London Music Hall is a delightfully dingy venue which holds abut 1600 people. Most of it is standing room only on the floor but there are a number of reserved seats on the mezzanine level. It draws a good number of bands and promises a much more intimate experience providing you don’t mind competing with other patrons for a spot close to the stage.

Once again, covid alerts were still rather high and I couldn’t help at snickering while thinking about the typical demographic a southern rock band would attract. I almost expected to see shady peeps outside selling fake covid vaccine certificates as opposed to marked-up resale tickets for the show.

The band was kind enough to invite some local talent to open the show. Sarnia’s The Cody James Mitchell Band, who tout themselves as a band who plays Blue Collar music, kicked off the show with short but impressive set which paired well with what was to come.

When the smoke finally hit the stage, they busted into a 22 song set with music spanning their entire career characterized by frequent guitar changes, an abundance of sing along and a two song encore ending with Ain’t Much Left of Me. Once again, I found the noise level a bit much but, like the Glorious Sons concert a month and a half before, I attributed this to doing nothing but listening to spotify on my JBL speaker for two years prior.

In my opinion, Blackberry Smoke are one of the more underrated bands, not only in the country-rock genre, but in music in general. I can’t complain, however, as I have the benefit of seeing them in a small venue like the London Music Hall with only Stone Cold Steve Austin, a couple of setlist bunnies and a dude with a plaid shirt and a leather shoulder patch standing between me and the band.

This was the first concert I attended since covid ended live music for everybody. Budweiser Gardens in London, Ontario, is a medium sized venue that has the advantage of being an attractive venue for good Canadian artists who draw a decent crowd and is a large enough pit stop for those playing Toronto and/or Detroit.  Over the years, I have seen the likes of Avril Lavigne and Simple Plan (collected dad points doing this) as well as international favorites including Linkin Park, Audioslave, Elton John and Stone Temple Pilots. I was even dragged to a Def Leppard concert and was luckily saved by the ability to consume numerous pints of expensive draft to barely make it through the night.

On this night, I had decent seats (lower bowls) for the Glorious Sons. Some people, especially Hip fans, may refer to them as Kingston’s other band.  They bring a hard rock sound synonymous with 90’s Canadian bands such as I Mother Earth and Big Wreck. Despite the hesitancy of the local health unit to allow people to hang with thousands of their closest friends, the arena was rather full .

As early as the first song, I realized that my ear drums were not accustomed to anything louder than what emitted from my tabletop speaker during the two years of covid shutdown.  Although it was freaking loud (please refrain from ageism here..), I immediately felt a tinge of relief and for the first time since March 2020 thought there was some semblance of normalcy and a partial return to everyday life.

It was a short set of 13 or so songs with a focus on their 2015 and 2017 releases the Union and the Young Beauties and Fools respectively. They played well known tunes like White Noise and S.O.S. Toward the end, the crowd was more than willing to sing along to Josie, a song about a woman who fancies booze, drugs and men’s clothes….probably not much of a stretch from many in the crowd who spend two years doing exactly the same thing. In fact the crowd was asked to participate in a few other tunes even after chanting about Josie because the lead singer was having voice issues.

Since this concert was quite a while ago so I can’t remember specific details but I do remember needing to prove I was vaccinated, the ear shattering noise level and probably my first real sign that things may one day return to normal. The Sons are returning to London in early December in support of their new album “Glory”. I’m on the fence about going..on one hand I feel I would enjoy the full experience I didn’t get last year but on the other hand I feel like I’ve been there/done that. Plus, I’m awful at karaoke and don’t want to get called on to lament about my poor heart yet again.