My librarian buddy Rainey and I met up with a girl called Tracey, who posts in the
chatroom and is basically a lonesome Caper on the loose in Maine. She and her sister
were going to the show--Tracey had front row seats thanks to a prof of hers who knows
the CEO of the Metro Centre. My seat was one section back--I could see pretty well. The
sound could have been better, you know how rinks are, but the band was on, and happy,
and despite a few technical glitches was "Up" all night long. They played for two hours
counting the two encores. At one point, Alan stopped to thank a fan who had sent them
"the coolest letter"--it was a "picture diary" from a little girl who'd gotten new markers
for her fifth birthday and drew a bunch of pictures of Great Big Sea and sent them. He
said he hoped she was in the audience.
There was a lot of lowkey security so there were no rushes to the stage or people climbing
on their chairs. Everyone had a lot of fun, I think.
What did the guys look like? Darrell has gotten his hair buzzed off again, he was wearing
a grey sweatshirt and black jeans. Alan had on black jeans as well--and that strange
lettuce-green shirt that only he could get away with. Séan was wearing a brilliant blue
shirt... Imagine the effect it must have had on his eyes! We're talking Aidan Quinn in
"Benny and Joon" here, folks!!! And Bob was wearing black--with a blazer. He looked
very cool. And not everyone in the world can look really cool while playing a button
accordion! It's a skill you must be born with, it cannot be taught!
Oh, Alan's hair? A fine hair night! (Is there any other kind???) As Kay would say, it was
very "movey-aroundy"... *sigh*
Anyway, Tracey had just had a birthday and she and her sis invited me and Sarah and
Rainey to come out for a drink. So the others left us at the arena and we hooked up (our
seats were in different sections) and were standing around. Then we noticed that the radio
contest winners were all moving in *that* direction. So we said "what the heck"--and
followed them.
We ended up in a little "holding area" and decided to wait to see what would happen.
Sarah eventually went up to the manager (I think) who said that he couldn't guarantee
that we'd meet the band, but we were welcome to wait and see. So we did.
Rainey felt uncomfortable and Tracey's sister is not a GBS fan, so they left. We told them
we'd meet them at Cheers (nearby bar). At one point, the very five-year-old that Alan had
thanked from the stage got to go talk to him (she came out holding a picture and looking
kind of dazed!) So I figured, hey, just seeing that made my night!
At long last, after all the contest winners had filtered out, Séan came out, walking like he
was going somewhere and didn't want to be stopped. So we didn't try--no point in making
pests of ourselves. We figured the band would be leaving shortly and we thought, "We'll
hang around and wave or something, since we've already stuck around for this long".
Which was the plan--until Tracey's ticket-source, Fred (Metro Centre dude!) came along
with a group of his friends. Tracey immediately told us she had to go thank Fred for the
awesome seats (she'd paid for them, but he'd gotten her the location!!!) Without any
alterior motives AT ALL she went over and expressed her delight. Fred clearly enjoyed
the fact that she was so happy, so he said, "Why don't you come with us? We're going
backstage."
Well, um... SURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We followed Fred, waited outside a little "Meet the press" area, and there was Alan
doing the "designated meet and greet guy" thing. By this time he was obviously tired and
a little burned out, so we just said thanks for the great show, chatted very briefly about
the picnics this summer. Tracey had her camera so we, um, got pictures taken with him. I
was so proud of myself--Alan had his arm around me and I didn't even faint. (I may never
wash my cat sweater again, though!!!) (And he did remark "That's some shirt.")
So we decided to go--Alan was, as I say, obviously tired, and by the time we spoke to him
he was clearly operating more on good manners than actual enthusiasm--he was very nice,
absolutely courteous, couldn't have been more polite, but he looked like he was ready to
stop talking at any time.
So out we went, and there was Fred. We all told him thanks, how much we appreciated the
favour and he said, "Don't go yet, you haven't met Bob and Darrell."
By this time I was sure I was hallucinating, so I went along with him. We ended up in this
gross green dressing room... And there I was, eye-to-eye with Darrell. Darrell wasn't as
tired as Alan, so he seemed more interested in chatting. Tracey ended up telling him
about the time she saw them at an airport and was too chicken to approach. Darrell gave
her a big-blue-eyes look and commented, "We don't bite, you know. Unless we're really
crooked or something... Next time, come over and say hello!"
Tracey was really brave by this point, so she dragged me over to talk to Bob--again, Bob
was happy to chat. He was also really nice, though he admitted to being tired. --Shelley McKibbon
