| The
usual beautiful weather blessed us again for the three hour trip from Syracuse,
NY to Ottawa, Ontario Canada. We left after the Syracuse concert
in hopes of reducing the time required to cross the border. Apparently,
the same thought occured to a large number of truck drivers! We were
worried when we pulled up to Customs and joined a line of semis, and wondered
how many hours we would be stuck there. It went quicker than we expected,
and we honestly told the Customs official that we were going to Ottawa
to visit "friends". And we did! He waved us thru and we set
feet upon the frozen tundra. The drive thru the night was eerie and
surreal on the empty road. After seeing a hundred deer crossing signs,
we became paranoid, and watched and waited for a herd of angry and malevolent
hoofies to come roaring out of the woods, intent on our destruction as
payback for the many heads of their brethern over thousands of Cracker
Barrel fireplaces throughout America. It wasn't our fault!
We arrived at our hotel in Ottawa after yet ANOTHER scenic meander thru
an unknown city, but this time, it was compliments of the clerk at our
hotel. She was foolish enough to inquire when we arrived, if we had
gotten there okay. LOL!!!
We didn't see much of Ottawa, but what we saw was nice. We had a spectacular view from our expansive window, and I enjoyed the contrast between the gothic Parliament buildings and the recent modern structures. The Venue: The Corel Center is in Kanata, about 30 miles from the center of town, and was near a complex of modern civilization which appeared to have been set down in its entirety in the middle of nowhere. On seeing the Corel Center, I immediately thought of Teco Arena in Ft Meyers, FL without the palm trees. It's a good sized facility, and the home of the Ottawa Senators NHL team. It has been my experience that the Moodies always rock hard in hockey arenas, getting high off the left over testosterone which permeates the building. The venue was modified for the concert. It seats 34,000 for hockey games, but can be modified into other configurations, one of which is actually named the Wordperfect Theatre. Curtains are stretched across the center of the arena, with the stage and the floor seating placed on a temporary floor put over the ice. This concert setup seats around 5000. There was plenty of parking around the Corel Center and a Hard Rock Café was part of the complex, allowing us to nab some Ottawa pins and have French Onion soup before the concert. UNFORTUNATELY, hockey and the Senators' success this season put a damper on the show. The Senators had made the NHL playoffs, and had a game in Philly (which they lost) the same night as the Moodies concert. The turnout was perhaps half of the available seating, with the floor full, but the 100 section around 1/3, and the 300 section sparsely filled. I was surprised that a city the size of Ottawa would not have done much better, and I suspect it would have had the home team not been featured on television that night. The setlist was the same, with a 30 minute intermission. A security gate was not used, but the stage was fairly high (say 4 ft) with the usual crew of bored guards watching the audience from their seats against the stage. I was pissed off as hell to discover that my front row seat to the right of John had in its concert sightlines, a large box topped by two speakers that extended higher than the stage and effectively blocked my view of Justin during the times he stepped back from his mike. God only knows what he was doing then! I complained to the nice guard in front of me at the break, who wisely took my concerns to his supervisor. He brought back the info that it was "The Band's" decision, and I told him to ask The Band if they could be moved. Sigh I knew it was futile, but was amused by Gary, the Moodies stage manager who told me it was THE VENUE'S decision. LOL When I complained to Gary, he explained to me about the large boxes, but I couldn't quite hear him in the din, and thought he said: FUCKVILLE! I told him yes, that *I* was in "Fuckville", and he laughed and said again, and very plainly this time: Front Fill! LOLOL He said the speakers were put there because the front part of the floor would not be able to get much from the large overhead speakers. I have to say that it was the first time that I have EVER had front row obstructed view seats! LOL Frankly, I thought the speakers sucked, because they didn't sound as if they were mixed, but were just JL and Miss Bernie. It was a strong reminder that no one should try to sit up front because of the wonderful sound. In contrast to the other WARM venues of the tour, the Corel Center was pleasantly cool, though we didn't experience the cold feet we had at Firstar in Cincinnati in 99. The Fashion Report: RT - Black long slvd shirt, black slacks, no change at half GE - Jimi Hendrix shirt, black slacks, changed but I didn't put down to what. I know it wasn't the flag shirt! LOL JH - His waiter's outfit (tuxedo shirt, black slacks, PMS) no change JL - White on white embroidered shirt, leathers, boots, long slvd black shirt second half The Battle of the Buttons: Not an exciting night in the BotB! (damn!) JH came out the second half with another button undone on his tuxedo shirt, but John was buttoned up tight. JL did have his cuffs undone on the white shirt first half, which probably shouldn't be erotic, but IS! LOL The Concert: The concert was nearly perfect, but pretty lifeless - just like the crowd. Where are the rowdy hockey fans when you NEED them? I can't comment on the sound or the balance as a whole; it wasn't too bad from my seat. I couldn't hear JH's vocals on GD, but it that was probably due to my personal fuckville speakers. There were a small group of locals who were enthusiastic, but the crowd as a whole rarely stood. It was a dead crowd, and whatever killed them pretty well infected The Band, too. Perfect, but lifeless. The saving grace of the concert, and the source of GREAT amusement (both onstage and off) were two highly inebriated gals dancing in the front row. One was wearing hip hugger jeans that threatened to slide off at any moment, and the other gal jumped up and down in her excitement with mammaries flying everywhere. Security kept a watchful eye on them (as did the rest of us) and corralled them a bit, requiring them to dance in front of their seats. It was obvious both that they were drunk, and that they were not big Moody fans; hip hugger girl kept getting up and down at odd times, and with no clear idea when the music was going to stop. The antics were quite hysterically funny and inspired two sober, more "mature" traveling fans at opposite ends of the front row, to jump up and down in imitation of the center stage dancers and to twirl around to both MY amusement and John Lodge's amusement. SueC was past caring at that point. I was SHOCKED when Justin altered his introduction to The Actor, saying "when we first came to Canada" (paraphrased, I don't have it memorized). Of course, it would have been idiotic to say when we first came to the US, but after so many repetitions, I was jolted out of my seat by ANY change. All in all, it was Pretty Grim. MaggieMay |
