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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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| RON
SEXSMITH AGAIN - Central Bar and Grill, Victoria
BC, Canada - Friday October 29th - by mega-deluxe
guest writer Nick Morgan |
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It's
Friday night in rainy Victoria on Vancouver Island.
It's the Central Bar and Grill, where courtesy of
maestro distiller - retired - Mike Nicolson (the
racoon-skin hats tell me that Mike and Anne haven't
yet totally settled into the Canadian way of life
- or maybe they have) we're waiting, along with
a packed house, for Rockin' Ron
Sexsmith to take the stage. Oh yes
- and as Ron is a bit of a star in these parts now
('Whatever it takes' from the new album Retriever
is a radio hit in Canada) there's an alarming number
of female admirers crowding us diners at the front
of the stage. Like Ron and his band, they come in
all shapes and sizes.
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Maybe it's the girls who make Ron a little nervous,
despite the fact that he's on home ground - he lived
in Victoria for a few years - and pauses through
the evening to acknowledge old school friends in
the audience. So although the first half of the
set is good - more tunes from Retriever, the marvellously
possessive 'This song', and the quotidian heartache
(to quote a companion) of 'Strawberry blonde', plus
some excellent Fender Telecaster (the acoustic guitar
players axe of choice) work from Ron on 'From now
on' - there are a few musical and vocal wobbles.
Particularly when Ron moves to the clunky and badly
amplified Yamaha keyboard and nearly loses it altogether
on 'Foolproof'. |
But
supported by his excellent band ("nine and
a half out of ten", says Mike) he recovers
well with a solo 'Tomorrow in her eyes', sung in
anticipation of a reunion with his sweetheart ("sweetheart"?
- well we are in British Columbia I suppose) and
then cracks into a top form home run, including
'Dandelion wine', 'Cheap hotel', 'Sacred heart',
'Lebanon Tennessee', and a three song encore finishing
with 'Riverbed'.
We counted 25 songs in almost two hours, perhaps
only half of which he played a few weeks ago in
London. The girls were wild - Ron dashed for cover,
no doubt thinking of the imminent arrival of the
sweetheart, and his Mum. |
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by the way, Ron had lost the suit and raised the
sartorial stakes with a de rigueur rock and roll
shirt. Altogether then, a most satisfactory evening.-
Nick Morgan (concert phograph by Kate) |
| Thanks
again Nick. I've found another good track by Ron
Sexsmith: From
now on (mp3). There's also a great video of
Wheterver
it Takes (Quicktime - beware, it's a 21MB file)
on Ron's website. |
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Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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