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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Forest Lake, MN USA
Posts: 286
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Thunder Bay- Set List and Review
Hello All- Back from our Lake Superior circle trip, complete with two Lightfoot concerts, and a theater of sesaons - Warm and gorgeous, fog, rain and snow. Not the perfect weekend and a lot of driving- but hey, its Gord.
We arrived at the Minnesota-Canada border about 3 p.m. on Friday with the usual interrogation of questions. Our customs agent might have thought it was a bit odd to follow Gordon Lightfoot around the lake. I did show him the tickets so he must have had some confidence. I also popped the trunk so he could see that we were fairly harmless. When I went to Massey Hall in 2001, I got into trouble at the Toronto airport by having a banana in my carry-on luggage, which was promptly confiscated. To quote Cold on the Shoulder, I didn't make that mistake twice.
We went into Ontario and promptly realized that we were suddenly on Eastern Time, and the concert one hour sooner than I had expected. Fortunately, I had allowed a good time cushion, so no problems.
Our tickets were at Will Call as expected. The box office person said that the show was "completely sold out" and there was a woman outside the front doors of the theater with a poster asking to buy tickets.
The Thunder Bay Community Auditorium is a cement-brick building, smack-dab in a recreational park complex that includes a hockey arena and minor league baseball field. The street is named after Paul Shaffer- the local boy who made good on late night TV. I would guess the auditorium seats about 1500 or a little more. It has a 1970's-early 80's look to it - light oak dominates the decor but seats were a kind of burnt orange/salmon color, but darn comfortable and spacious. No one would mistake it for Massey Hall, the State Theater in Minneapolis or the Paramount in Aurora, IL. Whatever the theater didn't have in ambience, it made up for in acoustics. The sound was simply outstanding.
We were in the fifth row, front and center. We chatted with a few people before the concert- people who had come a distance - Red Rock, Fort Frances and Marathon were mentioned. Everyone recollected their memories of past Gord concerts and that we were all still excited about the next one.
8:00 a.m. and the lights dimmed and the experience began again. Here is the set list:
1) Triangle
2) Cotton Jenney
3) 14 Karat Gold
4) Never Too Close
5) Let It Ride
6) A Painter Passing Through
7) Rainy Day People
8) Shadows
9) Beautiful
10) Carefree Highway
11) Hangdog Hotel Room
12) Ribbon of Darkness
13) Sundown
14) The Watchman's Gone
Intermission:
15) Wreck of the E.F.
16) Alberta Bound
17) Don Quixote
18) Clouds of Loneliness
19) The Pony Man (by request)
20) Waiting for You
21) If Children Had Wings
22) If You Could Read My Mind
23) Baby Step Back
24) Early Morning Rain
25) Restless
26) Song for a Winter's Night
27) Encore: Old Dan's Records
My wife, bless her heart, is always interested in what performers wear. Here is her report for Gord: First set: Red velvet jacket, black jeans, white shirt and black cowboy boots. Second set: Brown velvet vest, blue/purple dress shirt, black jeans and boots. (I liked it better in the 90's when he wore Hawaiian shirts.)
Immediately after Cotton Jenney, Gord began apologizing for a cold and weak vocal. He continued that several times saying that "they were going to get through this" and another time, he was really "working hard." The voice had slightly more strength in the second set but this was not his best night.
I don't go to hear the 1960s or 1970s sound anymore- I go for the admiration of the longevity, perseverance and incredible catalog of outstanding material he has amassed. Several times during the show, he would clear his throat and sinus during instrumentals and between songs. That cold must have been a doozy.
Interesting Tidbits:
* He mentioned that he had played in Thunder Bay in 1968 or 1969 at Lakehead University, shortly after Trilogy was written. He said Thunder Bay was one of the first places he had played Trilogy but wasn't sure if he could do it tonight.
* Like the Winnipeg review that Char posted, the first set was very business-like with minimal comments. The second set was more chatty.
* The three-some of Painter, Rainy Day and Shadows were very difficult for him- he was really struggling.
* When he picked up the 12-string near the end, he said that he just felt that he could not do Trilogy. He said he had only three songs that are done on the 12-string, capoed on third (?) fret - the others being Early Morning Rain and Ring Neck Loon. He then did a few strums and lightly sang "Here the call of the Ring Neck Loon, hear the sound he will be home soon." He then started Early Morning Rain without any Elvis comments, etc.
* On Restless, he used "scrimshaw" on verse 2. At the Minneapolis concert a month ago, he had replaced the word with "necktie."
* On "Song for A Winter's Night" (My wife's favorite -thanks Gord), two things struck me. He used a slightly different arrangement that came out, "If I, could only, have, you near" to avoid the high note there. Something new was on the end after the lyrics, Michael Heffernan did something on the synthesizer that recreated the harmony sound of how the song ends on the "Gord's Gold" album. With Barry Keane's jingle bells, it was marvelous.
* He thanked a bunch of local people by name who he knew and Bernie Fiedler who was in the audience.
* The closer of "Old Dan's Records" might have been the vocal highlight. As he was moving the capo he said, "Who the hell was Old Dan anyway?"
With that, the house lights came on and the minstrel of the dawn was on his way.
We didn't stay around afterwards. People seemed genuinely pleased. It was a polite crowd of largely 45-75-years old. Only a smattering of "We love you Gord."
We had an early morning wake-up call to start the 420+ mile trip around the lake.
I will report in later tonight on what happened Saturday after leaving Thunder Bay.
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