Last night I saw one of my very favorite bands in the world, Great Big Sea*, in concert in Petaluma  It was amazing.

Great Big Sea's music, when listened to on CD is... okay.  Their renditions of traditional Newfoundland and Gaelic songs are the best perhaps; their original modern pieces range from good ("Ordinary Day," "Straight to Hell") to overly sentimental and sugary ("Walk on the Moon," "Boston to St. John's"). (Interestingly, some of their best songs are contemporary songs written to sound like traditional ballads: "England" and "Safe Upon the Shore" being the two best examples I can think of.)  Their covers of "When I'm Up I Can't Get Down" (originally by Oysterband) and R.E.M.'s "End of the World" are wonderful.

GBS in concert is another kettle of cod entirely.

A GBS concert is an excuse for a party: the audience is usually like a bunch of Parrotheads who are better behaved and far less drunk.  The band interacts with the audience. People sing along.  There is dancing in the aisles - if there are aisles - or in front of the stage -- if there is space for it -- or, failing everything else, in people's seats.  It would not be a GBS concert if people were not enthusiastically bobbing up and down for most of the show.

The unexpected can happen.  Last night, for instance, Alan Doyle jokingly launched into the first few bars of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth."  It might have ended there, except people in the audience started singing along.  Shrugging and laughing, the band went on playing the song while the audience sang.  It was great.  It was nearly as much fun as the audience sing along -- led by Doyle -- of "Bohemian Rhapsody" at their San Francisco concert two years ago.

The Mystic Theater in Petaluma was a great venue to see these guys.  In Canada, they sell out arenas.  In California, they play in clubs no bigger than your average multiplex theater.  No joke -- the theater where I saw "Mars Needs Moms" was bigger than this place.  So you are never far from the stage, even when you sit in the back.  And with a large empty area in front of the stage (perfect for the aforementioned dancing), you didn't even need to settle for staying in the back.

Their music improves so much in concert.  Songs that might be treacly on disc are infused with a needed energy and edge. ("Yankee Sailor" being the most significant example last night.) Songs which are fun on the stereo ("Hit the Ground and Run"**) become frenetic and even more fun.  And there are songs that just do not work unless you have an audience involved with them: "Helmethead" (my favorite song to see them perform live) and the wonderfully over the top "The Night that Paddy Murphy Died."

I know Alan Doyle fans: he's the cute, articulate clown.  Sean McCann is his straight man, and pretty amusing in his own right.  Me?  I am totally, unabashedly, a drooling Bob Hallet fangirl.  The man makes playing an accordion look sexy.  Really.  And last night he played (in addition to the accordion), mandolin, recorder, harmonica, tin whistle, banjo, guitar, and most wonderfully, violin.  I adore multi-taskers.

It was a wonderful concert.  I only wish I could go to Carmel to see them on St. Patrick's Day.  Now that is going to be a good time.

And - to end the night?  As part of their encore, they played the one song I've always loved that I have never heard them do live:  "End of the World" (with thirty seconds of Beethoven's Ninth sandwiched in the middle -- don't ask, it just worked).

I can die happy now.


*My fondness for GBS is the best argument I can think of in favor of music file sharing.  I first heard them on a mix tape sent by a friend.  Since then I have bought three CDs (other people in my household have bought another two) as well as ten individual tracks off of iTunes.  I have seen them in concert seven times.  It seem to me that whatever income they lost by my friend sharing that music with me they made many times over.


**"Hit the Ground and Run" is an Appalachian bluegrass number written by a Canadian (Alan Doyle) and an Australian (actor Russell Crowe). For some reason I find this terribly amusing.