Spirit of the West

 

The good ol' boys from the North Shore still kick ass after all these years. In fact, Friday's performance at the Commodore was even better than the North Shore Canada Day concert that yours truly co-produced back in the year 2000. Song after song, they had every single person in the room bouncing, dancing and sing-shouting every word to every song of their sing-a-long laden set of tunes.

After rocking Canadians for over 25 years they have not shown any signs of slowing down. Aside from a few grey hairs they are still every bit as good as the first time I saw them in the early 90's. Classics like "The Old Sod," "Political," and "Venice is Sinking" along with other staple tracks contributed to the main set. At one point, the majority of the band left the stage for what was ostensibly a solo from drummer Vince Ditric, which was not a drum solo at all, but a great 15 minute interlude of story telling and singing... often interrupted by SOTW temp and special guest, accordianist/keyboardist Tobin Frank, who initially remained on stage to support Ditric on keys, but hilariously decided to up-stage Vince with his own vocals and keyboarding, especially during Vince's a-capella performance of "That's Amore."

Now this was much to the apparent dissatisfaction of flutist Geoffrey Kelly who, while hailing as one of the two best drinkers on the squad, kept storming onstage shaking his fist and giving Mr. Frank dirty looks. However this was no doubt in jest. Tobin Frank's antics was no doubt interfering with Mr. Kelly's, John Mann's, and the rest of the boys' much needed drinking break.

The encores, (yes there were two encores, count 'em two!) saw legend Barney Bentall, opening act Ashley MacIssac, and a host of guests join the band on stage for their unmistakable anthem, "Home for a Rest."

They ended this sweaty, high energy night with the world’s greatest bar hopping ballad, telling the story of their travels from the 'Troller to the Raven, and all stops in between.' The best in North and West Van Pubs were mentioned while they 'drank 'till there was no more,' with a little number from the 80's entitled simply "The Crawl."

It was an incredibly special night for the fans and band alike. Spirit of the West clearly continues to prove that few of even the most commercially successful Canadian rock acts can keep up with their live show, as these guys are without a doubt one of the single greatest rock bands Canada has produced.

Full stop.

Article by: Mark Dobinson
posted:19 Dec 2008