I'll Tell You Now That Grown Men Cry, And Irish Girls Are Pretty.

Last night, my family and I had the chance to see The Proclaimers live in concert. It was excellent...That is, it was excellent once The Proclaimers took the stage some 3 hours after the doors were supposed to have opened. Our tickets told us the doors were opening at 7:30, so Matthew and I lined up at about quarter after 7, and waited there in the cold until about 8:20 before we were let into the venue.

The opening band had demanded privacy for their sound check, so we had to wait for them to finish that before we were allowed in. Of course, once we actually got into the place it was still another hour before the show actually started. Needless to say, by this point we were all quite ready for it to get going.

Jeremy Fisher, both the name of the frontman and the band itself, is a folk-rock group based out of Vancouver. To be quite honest, I enjoyed them, but not so much that I would willingly wait an hour in the cold to hear just them. Their music was kind of cliché, and the frontman's onstage banter was boderline annoying. I didn't hate the band, but neither did I love them, I was there to see The Proclaimers. I was actually somewhat offended when they decided to do an encore. Opening acts should not do encores.

OK, half an hour after Jeremy Fisher relinquished the stage, Matthew and I managed to get within spitting distance of the stage. Enter the twins. Craig and Charlie Reid put on the show I was hoping for. They both were very comfortable on stage, and had a commanding presence, especially when hollering out their great songs. Their back up band was also quite talented on the various instruments they played (which included the typical: electric and bass guitar, drums, and the not so typical; pedalled steel guitar and accordian). While I didn't know all of the songs they performed, they did play my favourites: Cap In Hand, Sean (from which the title of this post is taken), I'm On My Way (which was featured in Shrek), Let's Get Married, Sunshine on Leith, Letter From America, a great cover of the song King of the Road (originally performed by Roger Miller), and of course ended their pre-encore set with the standard I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles). One thing that The Proclaimers really know how to do is just rock. Their style is unashamed and open, and at the same time incredibly tight musically. Of course Matthew and I lined up afterwards to get their autographs, Matthew told them that he was going to play their music to his kids (I'm guessing he was referring to the choir class he teaches) to show them how to sing and Craig's reply to that was "Well, I hope it doesn't put them off (singing)."

All in all it was an excellent show, and one of the best I have been to.