Chantal Kreviazuk in concert

‘First and last’ seems to be a real theme for me lately in terms of music concerts.

We attended the Chantal Kreviazuk concert on Friday night at the River Rock Casino. I didn’t know beforehand, but as it turns out Vancouver was her first stop on the tour. A week and a half ago we went to see the 360 Degree spectacle that U2 brought to town, and that evening was the last concert stop on this leg of their tour.

In terms of degrees of acoustic intimacy you really couldn’t have paired together two greater extremes. At BC Place we were surrounded by around 60,000 of our closest personal friends, stuffed into plastic stadium seats just under the roofline (don’t get me wrong, I was still happy to be there!), whereas for the Kreviazuk show, we were completely surprised to discover upon arrival that we had plush, upholstered front row seats! Don’t ask me how we didn’t know. Probably has something to do with the stress of the “Renovation Zone” going on at home right now.

What a show! Both of them, U2 and this one, were awesome, but for entirely different reasons. The media has saturated the entertainment papers with U2 coverage, so I’ll devote some print to a very talented Canadian vocalist. She has Winnipeg roots too, in common with my wife, so that added personal impact for us as well.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Chantal perform. We attended a ‘Find a Cure for Cancer’ benefit concert at GM Place 8 or 10 years ago. I still have a promotional poster at home that I just ran across recently. It says the concert was Oct. 8, but doesn’t say the year. The artists on the bill that evening were: The Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan, Jann Arden, Bryan Adams and Chantal Kreviazuk.

From what I’ve heard over the years, Sarah seems to get more coverage and is perhaps better known, and she is a talented performer, but Chantal has, in my opinion, has just as strong a vocal range as Sarah. As I listened on Friday night I was thinking, especially during some of the softer songs, that not many recording artists would be able to actually sing some of Chantal’s songs; her vocal range is that varied.

Instead of a solo show, she had back-up this time provided by drums, violin and cello. Not the expected accompaniment for a rock show.

Although that brings up another thought; how is her music actually classified? I wouldn’t say it’s rock. Perhaps ‘pop’, but that sounds too cheesy. She gets radio play, so I guess that’s all that really matters. Wikipedia slots her into ‘Adult Contemporary’.

I didn’t expect to recognize any of the members of the back-up band, but one I was familiar with. Kevin Fox, the cello player, was interviewed on CBC’s ‘Q’ with Jian Ghomeshi a few months ago, and he also played a song or two live in studio.

I told myself I’d remember the name of the violinist too, but to no avail. Chantal mentioned her name, her band and one song that Chantal really liked. Do you think I can remember any of those names? Nope. Her band’s name was something like “The ______ Lately’s”. Gee, that helps a lot, doesn’t it? I’ve never been great with names.

Another high point of the evening was the opening act. I wasn’t even aware there would be an opener. I get the feeling the organizers didn’t either until last minute because we were only told that there would be an opening act when we picked up our tickets at the front desk. And we were left in the dark as to who that might be until Meaghan Smith was introduced on stage. A curious way to handle it, I thought. None the less, I thoroughly enjoyed her acoustic set with her “husband for this evening”, as she put it, on acoustic guitar.

All in all, a very fine evening of Canadian music.