Gotta love that U of A!

So yesterday one of my sisters and I went up to the U of A to see The Be Good Tanyas.

The sister who took me has been a fan for quite a long time, and when she used to live at home I'd always hear her listening to their songs. I absolutely love their song 'The Littlest Birds' (which they put in a Zellers commercial... argh).

Anyway, we left home a little after 7 and got to SUB about 20 to 8. We sat amongst the university kids studying for exams (SUB is open 24/7 this time of year) and played cards.
Finally, after accidently skipping the ticket line and walking around the building to kill time, we got in and to our awesome seats. It was a few minutes before the opening act, Ora Cogan, came on.

She has such a beautiful voice. It was very folky, all slurred and calming. She sang a few songs (and laughed her hilarious laugh) before a few of the Be Good Tanyas' came on to join her for 2 songs.
After that was the intermission in which we played "barebones" style of Crazy 8s, compared socks with the incredibly funny guy sitting next to us, and basically displayed textbook examples of sibling rivalry.

Eventually the lights dimmed again and the band came on for real. They played songs off of all their albums 'Blue Horse', 'Chinatown' and the latest 'Hello Love'.
They played a lot of their slower songs, with some more up beat ones every now and again. But, as expected, their voices were absolutely wonderful.

When they left the stage about 2/3 through the set everyone thought they were leaving, but it just turned out that their drummer broke his snare drum (Oops :P). So they came back on and all was good.

The band members were all quite witty and such (great sentence), deciding whether to drink their water or their wine first, or joking about their current obsession with covering Neil Young songs. One of the best parts of the night was when they were talking about playing at the Royal Albert Hall, but how the Queen didn't come. Trish Klein then joked that Her Royal Highness did send a note saying that she loved the music and that some of her songs helped her through some tough times. Samantha Parton then started to play 'Blister In The Sun' and Frazey Ford did a little Queen wave... teehee :)

Their second last song was the one I know best, 'The Littlest Birds'. They had the special guest of an Edmontonion musician (whom I unfortunately didn't catch the name of) to play the banjo. They started to play with many cheers from the audience. A couple verses in a tall guy with dreadlocks walked across the stage and gestured toward the piano (the band had been inviting people who could play instruments up on stage, although he was the first one to actually take up the offer). The entire theatre was cheering for him, as being at the U of A almost everyone (including my sister) knew him. So he sat down and did a wicked piano solo.
I felt kind of bad for the guest banjo player, as it was kind of supposed to be his song, but he played an awesome bit with Trish Klein. Anyway, it kind of turned into an Edmonton jam session!

That, added with a bit of reminicing about our wonderful city and Bill Bourne, was about it. It ended at about 11:30, and with it ended their tour of Western Canada. C'est Dommage.

I had an awesome time! I apologize for this poorly written post, but I didn't get to sleep quite late last night, and I'm still a bit sore from the fitness tests gym yesterday...
Anyway, I might just go veg on the couch... or practice the guitar :) (all that folk music has inspired me to practice more often).
I'll be seeing you!