Okay, it’s taken me a while to blog about Brooke Fraser’s second show in Vancouver from a few weeks ago.  Needless to say, it was SPECK TACK U LARRRR.  She came back with a full band and boy, so much more incredible!  I mean, i like acoustic sets but the songs come SO alive when you got a guy like Michael Chaves ripping it up with the electric geetar.. especially during C.S. Lewis Song… he went craaaaazy.. awesome.

So, Mel and I headed downtown, grabbed dinner and waited outside Richards’s on Richards before doors opened.  The line outside was so long, i didn’t even think everyone could fit inside.  Took forever to get in but once we did… loveliness.  I didn’t try to do Merch this time but passed the word to Sarah and she ended up helping out with it.  We saw her at the table and I snagged my second Brooke concert shirt. The cool part about shelling out $25 for this particular shirt is that it generated $40 to be given to help kids in Rwanda via a partnership with World Vision.  Do the math on that one, hey?  Brooke was able to bring World Vision info on tour with her this time around to give opportunities for people to sponsor kids at her shows, egg-cellent!

Matt Hires from Tampa, FL opened the night.  He was kinda adorable.

And Brooke, she was funny as heck. It was a night full of this and that.  Her whimsical storytelling brings joy to my heart!  Let’s see, she talked about customs issues at the US/Canada border and oddities in various cartoons.  She made self-deprecating comments about her first album (the “Bad Pants Album” as she likes to call it) and referenced her Future-Husband-of-the-past-to-her-Present-Husband-of-the-present.  Confusing?  Maybe.  But not if you were there, you got it.  I would expect nothing less than her long-winded (yet absolutely entertaining) commentary on all things random.  We also took a vote on whether American or Canadian girls were hotter.. you can guess who won that one.  And my personal FAVORITE was when she busted out some moves.. extending her arms into a wingspan, throwing her head back and rhythmically jiggling her arms and shoulders.  SO HILARIOUS!, especially being front and center!  If i had that on video, it would be minutes upon minutes upon forever of perpetual laughter.

Oh wait, i found a video that someone from the balcony uploaded on YouTube!  It’s not the greatest quality, pretty blurry and a bit far away but you’ll get the idea.. it’s around mark 30 seconds into it.

Her set was of course similar to her last show but like i said, I enjoyed it heapsloads more with the full band.  Here’s a pic of her prepared set but it didn’t turn out exactly that way.  She didn’t end up playing “The Thief” or “Hymn” which is a bummer but she did play “Seeds” (my favorite on Albertine) this time!

Even though we were standing for more than 4 hours that night (albeit quite close to her), i loved it.  And I ended up bumping into a lot of different people at this show as well.. way to bring the peoples together!  (And thanks Liz for few pics)  Hopefully Brooke will release a new album soon.  Even though she’s just starting to promo Albertine in North America, it was released more than 2 years ago “down under.” I’m sure she’s got tons of new songs to be recorded.  I cannot wait!

The actual set of the night:

Deciphering Me
Hosea’s Wife
Love, Where is Your Fire?
Love is Waiting
Seeds
Faithful
Sound of Silence (Simon and Garfunkel cover)
Albertine
Better
Day Old Blues (Kings of Leon cover)
Shadowfeet

Encore:
Arithmetic
C.S. Lewis Song