Blue Rodeo Live In Edmonton Jan.8th 2013

Last night Janis,Buzzard,Charlene and I went to the Blue Rodeo show here in Edmonton at the Jubilee Auditorium. The first of two shows here in Edmonton. Blue Rodeo are on tour to celebrate their twenty-fifth anniversary of being a band. Of the twenty-five years together as a band this was only my second time seeing them live and second time within a year. For as often as they play here,it's kind of surprising that this was only the second time. I am sure I saw them play at the Jasper Folk Fest in 2001, but I am not totally sure.

I was lucky and won tickets for this show, although I had already bought tickets for it about a month ago, so my buddy Buzzard ended up with free tickets for his birthday. The tickets I won were better then the ones I bought, so ya, I took the better seats.

As for the show, I thought it was quite good, not as good as the performance I saw in the summer when they played as part of the Interstellar Rodeo Fest at Hawrelak Park. On this night at the Jubilee they were making the best of the acoustics of the venue, as I didn't think the show was near as rocking as the outdoor show in the summer. Blue Rodeo being a country/rock band, I lean more to the rock stuff myself. Blue Rodeo played two sets, as it was an evening with, no opening band. The first set was good, with them playing such hits as opening song "Cynthia" other songs played were "Diamond Mine", "Five Days In May", "What Am I Doing Here" and many more that I am not sure what the titles are.

For the second set of the evening they opened with a campfire style acoustic set with all the members sitting on stools and chairs playing. Now I like an acoustic song, but after six or seven slow acoustic songs, I was getting bored. I think three acoustic numbers would have been sufficient. It also seemed like they didn't have a setlist to follow as Greg Keelor kept shouting out songs, in which the band would all nod and start to play them. Jim Cuddy actually piped up and said "looks like Greg is running the show tonight". It was time to pick up the pace before I fall asleep. They finally did, but the acoustic stuff went on way too long. The rest of the set was excellent, with the band playing another hour and a half, the first set was an hour, so overall there was a lot of music played, which is understandable when you have been around for twenty-five years. Having said that, there were still some songs that you wanted to hear but didn't. Like my partner Janis, whom is a big fan of Blue Rodeo, (she is the one that got me in to Blue Rodeo actually) she really wanted to hear "Rose Coloured Glasses" but to no avail. They did play three new songs which will be coming out sometime this year, they were alright. Both singers Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor sounded good, and keyboard player Michael Bugowski stole the show, or so I thought anyways, he was givin'er all night. All and all a decent night of music and first show of the year for me. Good times!!!

Jim Cuddy in Edmonton.

Greg Keelor in Edmonton.

T-shirt front.