"Terry Fox Rocks"

From the list of Cultural Olympiad concerts we reviewed at the start of the Games, we really wanted to see Sam Roberts. I had a hunch the crowds would be huge so we hopped on a Skytrain to Surrey on Friday night to see the show in a (hopefully) smaller crowd setting.

We arrived around 6 pm and had dinner in the large on-site food tent. I had a great piece of salmon from the Aboriginal stall while Shauna had Thai.

There was some sort of rap band on stage that I didn’t recognize when we arrived (wasn’t it a bit cold for the shirtless guy?) but I didn’t recognize (or particularly like) their music. After dinner we took in the Arkells performance, then Dan Mangan. He really got some crowd participation singing the chorus of Robots Need Love Too.

We were quite close to the stage and the sound was excellent. I’m not used to standing so close to the amplification equipment and it was interesting the way that I could actually feel my down-filled jacket pulsate from the sound waves created by the drum kit. I haven’t had the pleasure of attending an outdoor show in quite some time (that was part of the draw) and the sound was very clear and crisp. It was a night and day comparison with the U2 show we experienced in BC Place.

There was a bit of a delay between acts as the roadies sound checked Sam’s equipment and the show got underway at 9:30. The sound was even better, which is usually the case with the feature performer. However, it was the drummer’s t-shirt that really stole the show for me. I kept trying to get a picture of it every time the drummer was flashed across the huge video screens. “Terry Fox Rocks” was emblazoned across his chest. How cool is that?

Generally I get good shots with my non-SLR camera, but there is an annoying digital equivalent to a ‘shutter’ delay. I finally gave up with the camera and just enjoyed the great music.