(For anyone interested in hearing some of Marillion’s work, you can go directly to their website at http://www.marillion.com/music/racket/crash.htm and either have a free CD sent to you or you can simply download it…again, all for free. What have you got to lose?)
(NOTE: All quotes listed in these articles are to the very best of my memory and are not to be taken verbatim. Set lists are also via memory, and whereas I’m pretty confident that I have all the songs listed here, the nightly order might be slightly out of whack.)
Sunday, During the Day
Sunday began a bit earlier than Saturday had, thankfully, but I still had a late enough start that I opted to skip breakfast, although skipping my morning coffee wasn’t an option. I decided that I would attempt to try and see some of Montreal but would take it easy due to once again not feeling the greatest. It basically seemed like I only felt well during the shows themselves; the rest of the time I felt under the weather.
My first stop of the day was to go to a place that I had passed the previous day. Their sign was in a more readable half French/half English style and looked like the Montreal equivalent to a White Castle sort of establishment. They boasted very clearly that they had both poutine and tofu hot dogs and so I felt that was a pretty safe option for a vegetarian like myself. I had read in my tour guide that poutine was considered “the dish” of Montreal, at least in a fast food sort of way. From what I had gathered, poutine must mean something like “a mess” in French and it consisted of greasy french fries covered with gravy, and then topped with cheese curds. I couldn’t resist! I had also never had a tofu hot dog anywhere except at home since I’ve never seen them on a menu prior to this.
The place was called LaFleur’s, and even though a different establishment was voted the tops for poutine, that place more or less scared me a way for a variety of reasons. LaFleur’s, though, looked less chaotic, easier to negotiate with the staff in the event of a language barrier, and so on. I ordered my food and it rang up as 2.59 Canadian dollars. No, that couldn’t be right since the sign said it was in the 7.99 range. Ah, here we go! Luckily, we got it straightened out and I waited patiently for my food.
To my shock, it was really not bad at all. They were probably the best tofu dogs I had ever had, better than anything I had ever made, and the buns were absolutely bizaree…kind of flat-like in nature and yet really tasty since they were more crisp. The poutine wasn’t bad either, although a mess it certainly was! I couldn’t find a fork so I went at it with my fingers and quickly had it everywhere.
After leaving LaFleur’s and attempting to clean my hands of gravy, I took the Metro up two stations, further than I had previously gone, and embarked on a rather lengthy walk to purchase a homemade bagel right out of the oven for a whopping 65 cents. That also was pretty amazing although the place is strictly a bakery and does not garnish the bagels at all, meaning with cream cheese or what have you. Considering I had just eaten a little while earlier that more or less worked itself out.
I was beginning to really tire out and made my way back to the Metro station. Now, up until this time, every Metro station I had been to had an attendant on duty which was good since I needed to flash my transit pass in order to get through the turnstile. I’m not sure why they don’t have these passes setup for their machines but alas they do not. Feeling pretty exhausted, I entered the Metro station to find no attendant on duty, nor was there even a place for one. Uh oh… I thought, well, maybe I can just buy a one way pass for the moment from the machine. There were 2 issues with this brilliance: a) the machine only seemed to be in French and b) I was able to translate that the machine was out of order regardless. Um, so, what do you do now? You do the only thing you can do…walk to the next Metro station. Ugh.
Luckily, it wasn’t too terribly far but I was near ready to collapse by the time I got there. I now had two choices: venture out and do a ton of walking in order to sightsee, or, return to the hotel and just relax and take it easy until show time. I thought about it while I was waiting for the train to arrive. It quickly became apparent judging from the fatigue that I was feeling that any major sightseeing in Montreal wasn’t going to be happening and that I should instead just take it easy.
The train arrived and it was already pretty crowded. I barely made my way in to the standing area and very quickly noticed a terribly strong aroma of, well, like day old salami or sausage, hanging in the air. It was one of those uncomfortable moments when obviously everyone smelled it but no one knew where or what it was coming from, so everyone looks around kind of nervously. The smell was unbearable, especially to a vegetarian. Could it be someone’s breath? Who breathes that heavy anyhow? Was it on someone’s clothes or something? How would you get that sort of smell anyhow…by rolling around in sausage? The more I thought about it the less I wanted to know. Just then, the train doors shut. I was now locked in with the odor and the sausage offender. I tried to focus elsewhere but it was gagging. The smell was so overpowering that I casually scanned the various passengers in the vicinity, half expecting to see a large 6 ft tall sausage man ala Oscar Meyer, standing and holding on to the railing, waving and smiling at people.
As soon as the doors opened at my stop, I exited as quickly as possible. Luckily, I had to switch train lines in order to get back so the ride didn’t take long. I can’t tell you how grateful I was to be rid of the salami sucker.
Since I had decided to lay low the rest of the day, I opted to sweeten the deal by overshooting my usual stop by 2 stations and grabbing a piece of cheesecake and a coffee at an establishment ironically named Calories. Yeah, talk about guilt trip while eating! I ended up getting a berry cheesecake but I think I would have been more pleased with the straight up plain. I mildly contemplated getting one for the road but, well, let’s not be too overzealous.
After this, I returned to the hotel and just collapsed on the bed for awhile. I flipped channels on the TV and the best I could find to watch was the movie “Mousehunt”. I considered myself lucky since 70% of the channels were in French. I also had briefly thought about going to see a movie at a theater but what if it was only in French? Again, most normal people could probably navigate easily around these things by asking questions and such but, well, I’m not really normal in that sort of way, if you haven’t already noticed.
A few hours passed and the final show was looming on the horizon. I wasn’t too terribly hungry but I knew I couldn’t last the whole evening without eating. I decided to just venture across the street to a nearby Mediterranean take out place and eat it leisurely back in the hotel room. A little while later, I took the obligatory Advil in preparation for the evening’s show and prepared myself.
I left slightly earlier this night, thinking that I’d try and get there before any music began. I walked into the Metro station and headed toward the booth where the attendant worked. As I did this, I noticed that the attendant was actually leaving the booth and walking away. Mild panic started brewing within me…here we go again! I started casually following him, to see where he was going, and he seemed a little nervous by this. He took the corner and as I rounded it, he was gone! At first I thought he disappeared but then I noticed some painted over service doors that were barely noticeable. Either way, he was now out of reach so I went back to the booth to find a large sign in the window that was, of course, completely in French.
I stood there, frowning, trying to find any sort of clue in regards to what the sign actually said. I looked for something with numbers, ala “…be back in 5 minutes…” Nothing. In fact, there were a lot of words on the sign so that didn’t seem promising. As I started to weigh my options in regard to whether it was a “be back soon” vs. “closed for the evening” sort of sign, I then figured that maybe another English speaking person would come along and translate. Someone did come along…an older lady, possibly even homeless, who took one look at the sign and started ranting and raving in French something I can only imagine. She didn’t seem like the right one to ask for the interpretation. So, now, not only was I lost on what the sign said but I also had a lunatic yelling while walking in mild circles around me. Great!
The clock was also ticking. So much for being early! I set a deadline and figured I’d give him 10 minutes to return or else I’d start walking. After about seven minutes, he did return, looking more relaxed. It was probably a bathroom break…which would explain a lot!
I quickly arranged things so that I could get through the turnstile right away. This was smart since the lady immediately started up some sort of mild argument with the attendant right behind me. I did my best to get away and headed towards the train as quickly as I could.
Sunday Night Show
As much as I planned to arrive early, I ended up arriving at just about the same time as the previous two nights. This ended up being fine since, for some odd reason, even though I had allowed ample “relief” time before this, a bathroom break was now at the top of the list of things to do upon entering the theater.
Now, where’s the bathroom? I figured it was down below and started following signs with an arrow and some sort of verbiage in French above it. After following this path around and down a staircase, I discovered this was instead where the coat check was. The two coat check attendants looked bored out of their skulls and immediately perked up as I came around the corner. Upon asking where the bathroom was located, neither of them spoke English and so a mild exchange of confusion broke out for a few seconds. Someone from the back was called up and explained that the bathroom was actually located in the balcony level. Hmm, interesting!
I made my way upstairs and into the restroom. I could hear music playing now so someone was clearly on stage but it was obviously prerecorded since it was the version of “Roxanne” from the film “Moulin Rouge”. What the heck were they doing down there? I heard cheers, and then silence, and then cheers. I couldn’t figure it out, all the while the music was blaring in the restroom at a very unnecessarily loud volume.
After emerging from the restroom, I made my way back downstairs and into the usual area where I had stood previously. I now understood what the music and cheers were about…there were two people on stage doing some sort of magician act. Odd! Even more bizarre, as soon as I came to a stop in my usual spot, the music and the act also ended so it only lasted about a whole 5 minutes. Everyone around me seemed to have an “okay, what the heck was that all about?” sort of look on their faces, including myself.
Not long after that, John Wesley came out and did an opening set. He’s basically just about always the opening act for Marillion whenever they do shows in the U.S. so most of the audience is usually already familiar with him. He is pretty good and was no different on this night, and his guitar work really does shine. I was really impressed with how light of a touch he had with his acoustic and yet his playing was super strong.
We then went through the usual shtick, with the slideshow in the background while the crew prepared the stage. Even though they had very little to clear off this night since John Wesley played alone acoustically, for some reason it took slightly longer to get the band on the stage.
Marillion emerged and started the final night’s performance with “A Few Words for the Dead”, the last track on the “Radiation” album. Lead singer Steve Hogarth (H) was wearing an interesting drape-like outfit that looked of Eastern decent. It was an interesting choice of song to open a set since it’s kind of slow in the beginning. To make up for it, they next launched into “This Town”, a more upbeat rocker type tune, that then bleeds over into “The Rake’s Progress” and eventually “100 Nights”.
It was at this time that H greeted the audience. As always, the crowd was simply crazy and cheering like mad, as if we’ve never seen the band before live. H then announced the theme of the nights’ set list: “…so tonight we’re going to play the shortest set ever...” Mild playful boo’s from the audience emerged during H’s pause, and then he continued, “…of longest Marillion songs…” Huge cheers erupted. My guess had been correct!
They continued onward with “This is the 21st Century”, a track from the “Anoraknophobia” album, which seemed to really get the audience excited. After that, they launched into my ultimate want for the weekend…the epic bonus track from “Marbles” called “Ocean Cloud”. The theater lighting turned blue/green and the screen filled with an ocean wave-like image as the slow-ish introduction to the song began. It was one of those moment where I’ve waited so long to hear the track live, and the song is so epic in length, that I couldn’t really take it all in on one listen. I’ve had that experience before with longer songs. Regardless, it sounded great, was very memorable, and both myself and everyone around me was ecstatic that they had played it.
The funniest moment of the night came when Pete Trewavas, the bass player, started playing a sort of country western riff on the bass in between songs. H heard this and started adlibbing vocals, trying to tie in as many country cliché’s as he possibly could, something about roping steers, drinking, cheating, etc. As what would be the refrain approached, H sang “…on the Brokeback mountain…I’ve been doing it for years…” Both the crowd and the band were cracking up, and Pete smiled into the microphone, yelling out, “That’s a little preview of our next album!” More laughter erupted, and then H continued, “Yeah, we all sat in a circle and asked, ‘Where haven’t we gone?’ and we thought, gay country!” This was even more amusing to me since I had just had the discussion about how Marillion, as a band, has done so many different sounds over their career and have never seemed afraid to try new things. H then continued, “You know, I apologize to any gay guy’s in the audience. That was a cheap shot. Therefore, I dedicate this next song to you”, and the band roared into the very long titled “If My Heart Were a Ball It Would Roll Uphill”.
After that, H commented on how they very rarely play the next track. It was my other ultimate want, the epic “Interior Lulu”. Some guy next to me kept yelling, “Lulu! Lulu!” One of my cats’ nicknames is Lulu so this seemed confusing to me for a slight moment. They ended the set with the three song anthem from the 1985 album “Misplaced Childhood”, consisting of “Kayleigh”, “Lavender”, and “Heart of Lothian”. Once again, the older material really seemed to get everyone into full singing mode, with just about everyone’s arms raised into the air while yelling, “Wide boys! Wide boys! Born with Heart of Lothian!” Who am I kidding? I even do this at home when I’m listening to the album!
Another interesting moment came when H looked at the audience with a curious look in his eye during one of the more instrumental passages of one of the songs. He then did what I call the “Peter Gabriel”, which consists of holding your arms out in a cross-like fashion and falling backwards into the audience, allowing them to carry your body around. He pulled it off in perfect fashion and the audience promptly carried him out towards the back of the theater, quite a way’s from the stage. A guy standing next to me commented to his friend, “Um, how’s he going to finish the rest of the song and get back on the stage?” It was almost as if H heard this because at that very moment I could see H pointing in the stage’s general direction. Like some strange floating taxi ride, the audience obliged and then carried him back to the stage in perfect fashion. Upon standing up again in his usual spot, H beamed like a child in a candy store.
I can’t completely remember but I think they broke the encores into three sections, playing one epic song at a time. It began with “The Invisible Man”, probably one of their best tracks of all time. I heard them play this during the 2004 tour but, like I said previously, I couldn’t take it all in during that show. I was able to enjoy the track much more thoroughly this time around and the lighting and everything else really contributed to it.
“This Strange Engine” was played next, actually my favorite epic tune of the band’s of all time. I did hear this on the 1997 tour but this night’s version far exceeded it as well. In 1997, I recall H spending a lot of time behind the keyboard so I was pleased to see him up and around this time out instead. The band did seem to be having a few technical difficulties which distracted H awhile but I don’t think the crowd really minded.
As the Marillion weekend winded down to the very end, H had a list of names on a piece of paper of which he wanted to thank. A huge number of audience members yelled out a “thank you!” in reference to scheduling the event in the first place and for actually making the trip out to North America, as I think all of us who attended felt exactly the same way. H seemed really choked up by everything. He also mentioned how “Montreal has always been a very special place for us…” H thanked the crew, the theater, and then let out a special thank you: “And thanks to Lucy for getting Mosley out of bed every day by 12:30…”
After thanking everyone, H mentioned to the crowd how incredible it was to be on the stage at that very moment, feeling all the love from the audience, and how there weren’t any real words to describe it. H said, “We’re going to leave you with this song.” He then stopped, looked towards stage left, and asked, “…are we?” Mark Kelly shook his head and a faint “yes” could be heard in his microphone. After playing their final song, “Neverland”, and as the band left the stage for the last and final time, I could see that H had some tears in his eyes. He was really moved by the whole thing, as I think all of us were as well. Mark Kelly came down from his keyboard pedestal, looked at H, put his arm around him and walked with him off the stage, almost in a consoling nature.
I’m not sure who was moved more by the weekend’s festivities - the band or the crowd. Either way, H did state that they would be back. Holding him to his word, onward to 2011’s convention!
Monday – Time to Head Home…
I set my alarm for a time that I wasn’t used to waking up and surprisingly I was up on time. In truth, I had a hard time sleeping due to a mixture of leftover excitement from the show and mild anxiety about the long day of airport hokey pokey that awaited me.
I cleaned up (the best I can, anyhow), checked out of the hotel, and made my way to the Metro for one last ride over to the Central Bus Station. I hopped upon L’Aerobus and to my surprise made it on time for the 9:30am bus. Maybe my luck was changing?
I ended up getting to the airport extremely early but I figured I’d be able to take my time, eat a nice breakfast, and so on. It turned out that they only had Burger King inside the terminal and so that was my feast, washed down with a venti Starbucks drink that I wasn’t actually familiar with. On my way walking through the terminal to my gate I passed a guy wearing a Marillion Weekend t-shirt. I briefly thought about saluting him but then again, with airport security being what it is these days, I’d probably get arrested or something.
I later found more people wearing their Marillion Weekend t-shirts and struck up a conversation with a few of them. It seemed unanimous that everyone was ecstatic about how wonderfully the weekend had played out.
All in all, the trip was quite amazing. I really didn’t get to see and experience Montreal at all, which was a bit of a drag, but the trip was really about the music and in that regard I got more than my money’s worth. It also got my mind off of being out of work for a few days since I completely left that mindset back at home, except maybe for not wanting to spend too much cash. In summary, after 20 years of Marillion diehard fan-dom, I finally got to see them the way I always wanted to, with the songs I wanted to hear, and it all seemed like a celebration of my 20th anniversary of being a fan.
Strangely, before going to the Weekend, I was mildly afraid that I’d experience severe concert and/or Marillion burnout. I mean, three days in a row? It seemed like it could be excessive. Well, it was the exact opposite. I didn’t experience any concert burn out at all, and instead, upon arriving home, I pulled out as many Marillion albums as I could and listened to them daily with a furious passion. I would have never expected this. I also experienced a bit of post Marillion depression, of returning home and feeling like there was nothing to look forward to after such an awesome event. I read some of the online blogs and it seemed I’m not alone in this since others reported similar side effects. Very odd. I’ve also seen two unrelated shows since then and couldn’t really get into either since they paled in comparison, and both were a couple of my favorite acts. Again, wow…
It’s now been a little over two weeks since the Weekend and I’m just starting to wind down, that is, after not just listening to the albums but also watching the DVD’s and so on. All I can say is that this is some powerful stuff. As their mantra states, “Find a better way of life…Marillion.com”. If you haven’t already, you should definitely check it out!
jstw
(Sunday Night’s Set List)
A Few Words for the Dead
This Town
The Rake’s Progress
100 Nights
This is the 21st Century
Ocean Cloud
If My Heart Were a Ball It Would Roll Uphill
Interior Lulu
Kayleigh
Lavendar
Heart of Lothian
(Encore 1)
The Invisible Man
(Encore 2)
This Strange Engine
(Encore 3)
Neverland
They also looked fabulous. With the string of “older” bands getting back together and touring over the past couple of years, ala Genesis, the Police, and so on, I was mildly afraid that Marillion too would look, well, older. Surprisingly, they looked no different, in fact, maybe they looked better than they had 5 years earlier. Lead singer Steve Hogarth’s voice was clearly no less magnificent, with his amazing singing range and sound echoing through the place with soaring intensity as always. The lighting also was incredible, drenching the stage in colors and adding visual depth and atmosphere to perfectly compliment the music. It was positively dreamy.
I won’t go through every single song of the set, which can be found below, by the way, but instead I’ll mention highlights. The title track of “Seasons End” was as amazing as always, one of their truly gorgeous tunes and one of my personal all time favorites. “Berlin” really sounded fantastic and for some reason stood out to me more than usual as it echoed throughout the theater.