Windsor Concert Review
So, I got scooped by the Windsor Star, darn. Oh well, here's my brief review of the Gordon Lightfoot concert Thursday evening at the WFCU Centre.
Gordon and the band took the stage promptly at 8 p.m., he attired in a blue suede jacket, white shirt and black slacks, opening the show with "Did She Mention My Name?". Only about a third of the cavernous WFCU arena was used for the concert with a large black acoustic curtain enclosing the concert area making it feel more intimate. I thought the sound was very good and Gordon's voice sounded better than I've heard it in quite a while. Perhaps the 8 week break since the last concert helped to give his vocal cords a rest or maybe it was just being on "his own sod", i.e., Canada that helped.
I'm so glad I made the effort to go there as I missed his show last year in Aurora, IL, which is much closer to my home. Windsor was the closest proximity to Chicago on the 2011 tour, so I decided to go for it.
This was my first time seeing Carter Lancaster in live performance and he earned much applause for his able lead guitar riffs with the memory of Terry Clements present in the venue.
Gordon sang "Let It Ride" and the line "I knew a man from Windsor went to Detroit every night..." was met with a rousing cheer from the audience.
For the second set he wore a dark maroon colored shirt and black velvet vest with black slacks.
When introducing the song "Home From The Forest" he related that 2 of his uncles had served in World War II and one didn't make it back and the other one was a POW in a Japanese prison camp. He said the song made him think of those who had served in the war.
Of course, he told the well-worn joke about the "hare on the rabbit's back" which was met with a collective groan from the audience.
I was very pleased that he sang both the "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and the "Canadian Railroad Trilogy", two virtuoso pieces from his repertoire. A young fan, two seats over, there with her father shrieked in delight when he launched into "the Trilogy", as she'd never heard it sung "live" before.
Gordon ended the show with 2 encores, "Rainy Day People" and "In My Fashion".
Afterward, wanting to prolong the afterglow, I made my way around the back of the huge stadium complex, noticing the telltale semi-truck and Prevost tour bus parked at the stage door. There were a handful of other diehard Lightheads waiting there so I took up my position for the expected hour-long wait for Mr. Lightfoot to emerge. As usual there was a "meet and greet" after the show which detained him. I've got to figure out how to finagle my way into one of those, LOL.
But patience paid off, as Rick Haynes soon appeared with his wife Marilyn and they gratiously talked with us for quite a while as he signed autographs. That was the first time I had met Marilyn face to face.
Mike Heffernan came out next and came back to talk with us after dropping some things off at his car.
Finally Gordon appeared with his manager and stopped to chat and sign autographs and I got my picture taken with him thanks to another fan whose name I do not know.
A very pleasant evening with Gordon Lightfoot in Windsor and I hope all of you have an equally delightful time at Massey Hall next week. My schedule does not permit time for me to be there, but I made my "pilgrimage" up there in 2001 and achieved my dream of hearing Gordon sing the "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" in the "mother church".
Windsor set list:
Set 1
1. Did She Mention My Name?
2. Carefree Highway
3. Sea of Tranquility
4. Never Too Close
5. A Painter Passing Through
6. Let It Ride
7. Christian Island
8. Shadows
9. Beautiful
10. Hangdog Hotel Room
11. Ribbon of Darkness
12. Sundown
13. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
14. Alberta Bound
Set 2
15. Sweet Guinevere
16. Cotton Jenny
17. Restless
18. Home From the Forest
19. Waiting For You
20. Make Way For the Lady
21. Fine As Fine Can Be
22. If You Could Read My Mind
23. Don Quixote
24. Baby Step Back
25. The Canadian Railroad Trilogy
Encores
26. Rainy Day People
27. In My Fashion
Last edited by OldDan; 05-22-2011 at 11:10 AM.
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