That was the best night of my entire life. I was 10 feet away from Gord and I will never forget every moment.
What a wave of emotions.
The Road Apples segment of the show was all tears. Not because of sadness per se, it was just intensely emotional. This band, especially the albums up to Day For Night are the soundtrack of my life. First tape, first CD, first concert and first MP3. The memories that came back, loving the music in the moment, just being that physically close to the band, and yes thinking of the overhanging sadness was more than I could handle.
For the Man Machine Poem and World Container segment I just tried to focus on listening to the words from my less familiar part of their discography, watching Gord's performance and watching each member of the band play for a while. My appreciation for them as musicians rose exponentially. For some reason the most powerful part for me was watching Gord Sinclair on the bass. Bass is one of those things that you can't really pick out easily unless you're live. It just blends into the song and you just know that its the engine somewhere in there. But being able to see Gord's finger work helped me figure out exactly what parts of my favorite songs I was so familiar with were truly associated with the bass. It was an unexpected education.
For the Day For Night, Phantom Power, Trouble at the Henhouse, and Up to Here segment I just tried to focus on loving the moment, rocking out and belting the words out at the top of my lungs. Then to finally make eye contact with Gord Downie and say thank you brought me full circle to the emotional wreck.
What a ride. Both the two decades and the two hours.
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