Niagara Falls review

[charlene]

picture at link

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20070302/1030944.asp

Impeccable Gordon

Lightfoot sings with heartbreaking care

By JEFF MIERS
News Pop Music Critic
3/2/2007

Bill Wippert/Buffalo News
Gordon Lightfoot performs one of his classic gems Thursday evening. Another photo on Picture Page, C8.

REVIEW
WHO:
Gordon Lightfoot
WHEN:
Thursday night. Additional performances at 9 p.m. today and Saturday
WHERE:
Avalon Ballroom, Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort

We're used to relating to popular music in a visual sense these days. Close your eyes at a concert and, likely as not, you'll create your own little music video for the music coming off the stage. Blame it on MTV if you need something to blame, or just admit that we live in an extremely visual-centric culture.
Some music seems to pre-date the visual relation, however.

On Thursday, as Gordon Lightfoot kicked off a three-night stand in the Avalon Ballroom, the music coming off the stage did affect the senses. But closing your eyes, you felt and smelled the music, more than seeing it. Lightfoot's songs, and the stilted croon of his vocal cadences, come at you like a salty breeze blowing across choppy green water. There's something ancient, exotic and beautiful about the man's music, and always something that seems to relate to the briny sea or the vast fresh-water lakes of his native Canada.

Taking the stage in front of his seasoned band - bassist Rick Haynes, drummer Barry Keane, keyboardist Michael Hefferman and guitarist Terry Clements - Lightfoot grabbed a beautiful vintage acoustic 12-string and dug into "Triangle," as the full house welcomed him warmly.

It was obvious immediately that the formidable baritone that so warmly intoned classics like "Sundown" and "Carefree Highway" had grown thinner with age and bouts with ill health. Lightfoot is nearing his 70th year, and the formerly thick, rich voice has grown a touch nasal and occasionally frail. Remarkably, this seemed to suit the songs just fine, as Lightfoot remains in command of his impeccable sense of dramatic phrasing, and his band's arrangements accommodate the less powerful singing.

Lightfoot wasted no time plowing through a songbook that would make a budding songwriter weep with envy. "Cotton Jenny," "14 Karat Gold," "A Painter Passing Through," "Rainy Day People" - these are gems, one and all, and deceptive in their ability to make a melding of Celtic and Canadian folk with country and pop seem a simple process.

Few do heartbreak as well as Lightfoot does and, not surprisingly, the saddest songs were the strongest on Thursday. Lightfoot's narrative voice presents itself as vulnerable, yet stoic, open and romantic, yet world-weary.

When he wraps himself around a tune like "Never Too Close" or "In My Fashion," the sense of real loss is palpable, precisely because Lightfoot never overstates his case. His subtlety, and his ability to ring emotive cadences from his finger-picked acoustic, combine to provide the songs with their power. Time has treated Lightfoot's music well.

Lightfoot returns to the Avalon Ballroom at 9 p.m. tonight and Saturday.


e-mail: jmiers@buffnews.com

[banjobench12]

Thanks Char......good to get the latest info

[brink-]

Thanks Char! What a great review. This guy understands Lightfoot music, that is apparent. I really hope Gord and the guys see this one, I think it is one of the best I've read.

[charlene]

Originally posted by brink-:
Thanks Char! What a great review. This guy understands Lightfoot music, that is apparent. I really hope Gord and the guys see this one, I think it is one of the best I've read. I'll ask him tonight!
lol
We're outta here shortly..off to Niagara Falls!

[Dream Street Rose]

Awesome review, thanks Char. Wish I was going with you. Can't wait for your review. :)

[T.G.]

Am I ever steamed ... there was a couple talking behind me for the whole Saturday concert. Things erupted into an altercation when people behind the gabbers told them to shut up; the woman swore at them and then they exchanged slaps and punches, along with more curses.

Incredible that I managed to get right in front of this - at a previous Lightfoot show, I was privileged enough to sit beside a fellow who knew the lyrics to every Lightfoot song and proceeded to "singalong with Gordon" for the whole show.

Do people have any common sense at all anymore? This kind of idiocy makes me reluctant to shell out top bucks for another concert in the future.

[Dream Street Rose]

T.G. I am sorry to hear about your bad experience. It is hard to imagine people wouldn't take it outside.

I learned after reading this site to just lipsync to the songs. Then I am happy and so are those around me. :)

[ELizabeth]

T.G., sorry to hear about the fracas at GL's Niagara Falls concert. I have the same complaint about movie audiences. Time after time two people are gabbing even as the lights go down. I always feel sure that when the film begins they will quiet down. BUT NO! more times than not the talking goes right on. And it's not teenagers...they mostly sit way up front and throw popcorn at each other. Seems to me they could stay home and do that for free.

Speaking of movies-does anyone remember when there were signs asking 'ladies please remove your hat'? I of course was way too young to remember that sign in move houses. Mother must have found one somewhere. Anyway I'm glad GL's concert got good reviews.
T.G. your luck is bound to improve.

[patybear]

To Charlene:
I clicked on the link to view the picture.But all I got was the following message:
"Sorry-the page you have requested does not exsist". Oh well,thanks anyway.

To T.G:Oh man,I'm so sorry you had such a lousy
time.Did anyone call an usher when things out out of hand?
patybear

[charlene]

the page is probably out of date now...

TG-my goodness-at a Lightfoot concert no less! lol
folks should have just had an usher handle it...

no such trouble on Saturday night..great show..more later..
I'm stuck in Toronto - 90kmh winds/snow/falling ice off of the CN Tower beside the condo I am at-planned delivery of TV iffy tday-gotta get out of the city before rush hour and get home. Wild wild weather.
www.citynews.ca (http://www.citynews.ca) - story and video of ice on Tower..sheesh..

[Kerstin]

Hi TG,
sorry to hear about your bad experience. I can't understand how people can be so rude! Didn't they have security to remove them? I would think that esp. at casinos there should be plenty of security around.
Kerstin

[BILLW]

Nice review Char. Thanks for posting.

Bill :)

[T.G.]

It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen happen at a concert. Funny thing was, all of us seemed to realize that we'd get smacked by that ignorant woman if any of us said something about her carrying on. I credit the guy behind her, who got clubbed, for having the gumption to say something.

Ushers and security were strangely absent, even though I think the woman's slaps on the guy's face could be heard throughout the concert hall. Then again, Lightfoot was in the midst of a song at the time and it's possible that dampened it out.

You can bet that people who are mindless enough to talk loudly through a concert, and ruin it for those around them, won't respond to reasonable requests to tone it down.

On a happier note ... I was pleased to hear the sound system in the Falls a bit louder than I've heard it at previous Lightfoot shows. Maybe someone has been reading our requests here to turn up the amps a bit :)

[Gitchigumee]

Originally posted by T.G.:
On a happier note ... I was pleased to hear the sound system in the Falls a bit louder than I've heard it at previous Lightfoot shows. Maybe someone has been reading our requests here to turn up the amps a bit :) We never know who may be listening (I'll never forget how shocked I was that day to hear from Melody/Ingrid), and so my philosophy is it never hurts to ask.

[RJ]

There's no shortage of these people who talk talk talk through the show from the opening song, then when IYCRMM starts (or one of the other 2 or 3 that they actually know) they stop and perch up and listen like its a religious experience or something.. then, the song ends, and they go back to yakkin' away..

I've become pretty adept at spottin'm early in the set, and try and diffuse the situation with a quick turn-around, warm smile, and say, "don't talk through all the ones ya don't know now."..

This usally embarrasses them into straightening up for the evening.. but ya never know though..

[RM]

After hearing these stories, I feel so lucky not to have had to deal with such nonsense in Tucson. It may have been occurring elsewhere in the theatre but, if so, it was out of my hearing range.

Counting small blessings.....

[seafarer62]

Anyone have set lists from the Niagara Falls concerts?

[Fitzy]

Originally posted by banjobench12:
Thanks Char......good to get the latest info

[bjm7777]

thanx char for all this info, I have printed some of the things you put up. What is it about Gordon, he talks to your soul. If anyone ever needed someone to relate to he can get you there. I recently saw an article of quotes from Dylan Buffet Cat Stevens etc... and they were all sayin how they tried to write like he did. Buffett for example said "Come Monday" he wrote to try to do the Gordon thing. Those are huge compliments. Thanx again for the info excuse the typing

[Fitzy]

thanx char for all this info, I have printed some of the things you put up. What is it about Gordon, he talks to your soul. If anyone ever needed someone to relate to he can get you there. I recently saw an article of quotes from Dylan Buffet Cat Stevens etc... and they were all sayin how they tried to write like he did. Buffett for example said "Come Monday" he wrote to try to do the Gordon thing. Those are huge compliments. Thanx again for the info excuse the typing

[T.G.]

Originally posted by seafarer62:
Anyone have set lists from the Niagara Falls concerts? Niagara Falls, ON
Fallsview Casino - March 3, 2007

Triangle
Cotton Jenney
14 Karat Gold
Never Too Close
Waiting For You
Rainy Day People
Shadows
Beautiful
Carefree Highway
Hangdog Hotel Room
Ribbon Of Darkness
Sundown
The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
Alberta Bound
All The Lovely Ladies
In My Fashion
If You Could Read My Mind
Restless
Canadian Railroad Trilogy
Baby Step Back
Old Dan’s Records

[louisemnnpls]

Originally posted by Fitzy:
quote:Originally posted by banjobench12:
Thanks Char......good to get the latest info [/QUOTE]Thanks, Char, for the review, and thanks T.G., for the song list. Sorry about the "bad actors" behind you at the concert. We could have had a huge problem at the Minneapolis show last fall. Two very young guys came and sat down next to me (of course I think everyone is young. LOL!), and they were totally wasted, although very cheerful.
The one kept leaning over and talking right into my face. Lucky me. :) After a bit a couple came along and the young men found out that they were in the wrong seats. They ended up in the same row but over at the end of the next section. My husband told me after that he had noticed that one of them had become sick right were he sat. I would have found that very unpleasant. I don't know who the poor people were sitting around him.
I didn't notice anything except Gord that night, as that was one of the nights that he was experiencing the transient stroke. He had just come from Harris, MI and then to Mpls.

[Gitchigumee]

Louise, I was there that night at the State Theatre. No drunks near me though :eek: , thank goodness. Are you going to the concert in Mpls on 9/22/07 ?? :D

[louisemnnpls]

Originally posted by Gitchigumee:
Louise, I was there that night at the State Theatre. No drunks near me though :eek: , thank goodness. Are you going to the concert in Mpls on 9/22/07 ?? :D You were there, also!!! :) :) Where were you sitting??????
Yes, God willing, we will be there for sure, in September. Last year, my husband and I had said that we would be there if we had to crawl. Well, when the time came, my husband had just gotten a cast off of his foot. I swear it took us 10 minutes to get one block, but we made it. And, best of all Gord made it, after all that had happened. That was a night like I have never experienced before. It was like a religious experience. (And I mean no disrespect to God.)

P.S. - The two drunks were sitting close to the right hand wall almost by the aisle. Up close to the front. Yucky! :( :rolleyes:

[louisemnnpls]

Originally posted by Gitchigumee:
Louise, I was there that night at the State Theatre. No drunks near me though :eek: , thank goodness. Are you going to the concert in Mpls on 9/22/07 ?? :D Oh, we were on the Main Floor....T7 and T8.

[Gitchigumee]

I agree, it was magic. And for me, it was my first time. We were in the balcony. Maybe we can meet and say "hi" in September '07. Last year, we drove up earlier that day, checked into a hotel in a skyscraper in downtown Minneapolis with a fabulous view, found an awesome restaurant close-by which we walked to for dinner, and then after dinner, we walked to the show at the beautiful theatre. The only thing that would make it even better next time, would be to get together with some new friends after the concert, make a toast to Gordon Lightfoot, and to re-live and savor the experience!

[louisemnnpls]

Originally posted by Gitchigumee:
I agree, it was magic. And for me, it was my first time. We were in the balcony. Maybe we can meet and say "hi" in September '07. Last year, we drove up earlier that day, checked into a hotel in a skyscraper in downtown Minneapolis with a fabulous view, found an awesome restaurant close-by which we walked to for dinner, and then after dinner, we walked to the show at the beautiful theatre. The only thing that would make it even better next time, would be to get together with some new friends after the concert, make a toast to Gordon Lightfoot, and to re-live and savor the experience! Oh, that would be so much fun!! :) :) You really picked some show for your first live GL Show!!
We'd seen him many times, but never before experienced anything like that.

Did you like DT Minneapolis?? We're so used to it, but think that we probably take a lot of it for granted.

[Gitchigumee]

It was fun, sort of awe-inspiring since I'm a small-town girl. I felt a bit like Mary Tyler Moore walking around looking up at the tall buildings! I wouldn't want to live with all the traffic, but it was fun to stay in a hotel downtown and just walk around and experience the big city, its sights, and its sounds!

We will most definitely have too hook up in September! Let me know if you figure out a way to get good seats so I don't end up in the nosebleed section again!!