Rocking with Sam
I’m a big Sam Roberts fan. He’s just a solid Canadian rocker, and I expect him to be rocking around for a long, long time.
Not long ago, he was playing a show at a local wine festival. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend, so I was pretty bummed about that. So when I heard he would be playing another show in Chatham (about a 45 minute drive from Windsor) in November, I knew I had to get tickets.
The show was this past Monday at the River Rock Nightclub. I went with my friends Dave and Jon. As we stood in line waiting to get in, we couldn’t help but notice this dirty, creepy, old guy behind us. He just didn’t look like he belonged. He started behind us, but as time went on and the line shuffled forward, he seemed to sneak to the side of us and eventually in front of us. We didn’t say anything, but maybe we all felt our wallets were safer with him in front of us.
We found ourselves a great spot on the upper level near the bar. The opening act was another Canadian band called The Stills. I thought they were pretty good. I just found the vocal mics may have been too hot because a lot of the words sounded distorted. Too bad that didn’t really get addressed. Well, until Sam came out. He sounded much better.
Of course, Sam has a new record out called “Love At The End Of The World,” so he played a lot of new stuff. And that was fine with me because I think the new album is great. And he played some of the earlier hits like “Brother Down” and “Where Have All The Good People Gone?” Then they did their fake good-bye before returning for an encore, which actually lasted another 3 or 4 songs, so it was a great show, but I couldn’t help leaving a little disappointed.
They didn’t play what was probably the song that really launched them onto the scene, which of course is “Don’t Walk Away Eileen.” I’m sure after 6 years, it might be driving him a bit buggy, but hey, fans expect it. It reminded me of the time I saw The Tragically Hip in Michigan when “Music At Work” was released. They didn’t play “Blow At High Dough” OR “New Orleans Is Sinking.” That was just so wrong. If The Rolling Stones can still play “Satisfaction” some 40 years later, I think Sam (and Gordon) have to give people what they want.
But hey, it was a great show. On the way home, Dave, Jon, and I sang every classic rock song that my Sirius Radio threw at us. I thought our best effort was “These Eyes,” the classic Guess Who song.
Great night.
Tags: Chatham, Love At The End Of The World, River Rock Nightclub, Sam Roberts, The Stills