James and I finally went to the much anticipated Feist concert in Ottawa, despite a few roadblocks that could have stopped us from getting in the door.
Roadblock #1: Julie and Raf weren’t able to go! We introduced Raf to Feist’s album, and we really wished they could have gone to the concert with us. But they are en route to New Zealand. We missed them a lot at the show!
Roadblock #2: Ticketmaster received our order and payment, but somehow the tickets didn’t arrive. This wasn’t too alarming at first – what are the chances of tickets totally disappearing? We booked well in advance! Then I found out that the concert was sold out and I started to panic. Luckily, James has an honest face and the people at the Ticketmaster office were able to print us new tickets. Phew!
Roadblock #3: Memories of the Metric concert (January 2005). Now don’t get me wrong – James and I really enjoyed the Metric concert that we went to at Babylon last winter. It was right down the street from my apartment (about a 3 block stroll, and you can’t beat that!). Unfortunately, we had taken the Ticketmaster agent seriously when she said we should arrive around 8 pm for the 9 pm start. The opening act didn’t even come on stage until 10:30. This made for a long night for James and me (I never thought I’d feel like one of the oldest concert-goers in the room! But I really did feel this way, and I wasn’t eager for a repeat of that experience.). So it was with a bit of trepidation (and an emptying out of our pockets, and a leaving behind of any heavy objects that would weigh us down while we were standing patiently, and a promise to check our bulky winter coats, and a decision to not arrive the moment the doors opened…) that we headed over to the Capital Music Hall on Rideau St. Not too far from me, although MUCH further away than Babylon (30 minutes walk instead of 10 minutes). We even managed to catch a bus there, so we arrived just a little after 9. To our delight, the opening act was already on the stage! And they were good! We even considered buying one of their albums. Since we could understand their lyrics the first time around, the album definitely had promise. Then they got off the stage. And the SECOND opening act came on. What’s with that? Yet another great band. But our backs were starting to hurt (OK, I’d actually injured my back the day before, but I really wasn’t looking forward to standing through another 30 minutes of mystery music). Anyway, this band finally wrapped up and eventually Feist hit the stage! And this was before 11 pm (I think – I wasn’t actually wearing a watch.)! Very exciting indeed. After the long wait, Feist did not disappoint. Aside from the crowd really wanting to hear the songs from the album Let it Die and not really knowing what to do when these favourites appeared in a less-than-familiar way. But we listened politely while Feist shared with us a bunch of new songs that would eventually be released on her upcoming album, once she records it. All in all, it was a very fun show. I liked how she pulled the two other bands back up on the stage with her in a Broken Social Scene styled song or two. But I kind of felt that this should have cut into their opening act time, not the official concert time.
So the concert came to an end, and the as-old-as-we-are audience made a very orderly exit from the Capital Music Hall. This was the last show there before the concert hall closes (I think it’s being demolished so that some more condos can go up in the Byward Market area). Some other fans helped us avoid icy patches on the stairs on our way out. We made it home safely. We were glad we had gone.
