by Terry Smith » Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:17 am
I posted this on the wrong Toronto site. I meant it to go here...
My wife and I also had the pleasure of seeing Bob at Hugh’s Room in Toronto on Sunday night and I thought you might like to get yet another person’s perspective on how it went.
(First, a quick sidebar: If you ever get a chance to go to Toronto, visit Hugh’s Room. It a great venue, serves a nice dinner – if you want it - and the staff, headed by Todd, the club manager, is terrific. It’s warm, friendly, and personal. They also did an unbelievable job of promoting Bob’s visit.)
I’ll break this down into three parts: fan reaction, music and personal:
Fan reaction: Bob mentioned at one point between songs that he didn’t consider himself a “star”. You could have fooled the audience. Perhaps if you go by pure quantity of fans I might buy it. However, if you go by level of enthusiasm for him and his music (let’s call it quality), he’s off by a wide, wide margin. Every person I heard couldn’t have been more “juiced” about seeing and hearing him. By my count, three encores is a pretty good indication of how everyone felt.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on the music part… not because it wasn’t good, (actually it wasn’t, it was great), but because anyone who’s on this site knows Bob’s music and doesn’t have to be convinced. My guess is the ratio of new to old was about 60/40 or 70/30, which was fine. It’s all great stuff. Bob’s voice is a mystery to me. He sounds as good today (perhaps a little “fuller”) as he did forty years ago. A couple of unexpected highlights: Bob has talked, on this site, about his version of Tom Paxton’s Bottle of Wine. It was very different and, knowing Bob’s background a little, much more melancholy and personal than any other version I’ve heard. The other song that was a wonderful surprise was If I Loved You (yup, the one from Carousel), which was really bluesy and out of context for Bob. I tend to think of Bob as a singer/songwriter, not necessarily as a “guitarist”. My mistake. He did a terrific job with it. Bob’s last encore was How the Nights Can Fly and, given the audience reaction, you have to wonder why this song has never gotten much more attention.
On a personal note it gets more difficult to share. I suspect that most of us who visit this site have never met Bob and think of him on a very different level. His music hits such a personal chord, but in a way that we don’t have the talent to express. Consequently, we elevate our perception of him to an almost (sorry, if this is leaning too far towards hyperbole) mythical level. This is probably most accurate for those of us who have listened to his music for forty-plus years. When we made our plans to go to Toronto I had a weird sort of apprehension about finally seeing and, perhaps, meeting Bob. It was more than just a little bit of awe as well as, truthfully, a little bit of concern. (At one pre-concert point I confided to my wife, “Jeez, what if he’s a jerk?”)
Well, he’s not. Bob Lind was one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. After the show he stayed and talked to whoever wanted to visit with him. I spent far more than my share of time with him (and would have spent significantly more if I hadn’t felt embarrassingly guilty about monopolizing him). What was particularly notable to me was his level of appreciation for my/our support. He spent as much time thanking me as I did thanking him. He was generous and warm and seemed truly grateful.
Too often we’re let down by expectations we set too high. Not for me. Not this time.
Thanks again, Bob.
T
I posted this on the wrong Toronto site. I meant it to go here...
My wife and I also had the pleasure of seeing Bob at Hugh’s Room in Toronto on Sunday night and I thought you might like to get yet another person’s perspective on how it went.
(First, a quick sidebar: If you ever get a chance to go to Toronto, visit Hugh’s Room. It a great venue, serves a nice dinner – if you want it - and the staff, headed by Todd, the club manager, is terrific. It’s warm, friendly, and personal. They also did an unbelievable job of promoting Bob’s visit.)
I’ll break this down into three parts: fan reaction, music and personal:
Fan reaction: Bob mentioned at one point between songs that he didn’t consider himself a “star”. You could have fooled the audience. Perhaps if you go by pure quantity of fans I might buy it. However, if you go by level of enthusiasm for him and his music (let’s call it quality), he’s off by a wide, wide margin. Every person I heard couldn’t have been more “juiced” about seeing and hearing him. By my count, three encores is a pretty good indication of how everyone felt.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on the music part… not because it wasn’t good, (actually it wasn’t, it was great), but because anyone who’s on this site knows Bob’s music and doesn’t have to be convinced. My guess is the ratio of new to old was about 60/40 or 70/30, which was fine. It’s all great stuff. Bob’s voice is a mystery to me. He sounds as good today (perhaps a little “fuller”) as he did forty years ago. A couple of unexpected highlights: Bob has talked, on this site, about his version of Tom Paxton’s Bottle of Wine. It was very different and, knowing Bob’s background a little, much more melancholy and personal than any other version I’ve heard. The other song that was a wonderful surprise was If I Loved You (yup, the one from [i]Carousel[/i]), which was really bluesy and out of context for Bob. I tend to think of Bob as a singer/songwriter, not necessarily as a “guitarist”. My mistake. He did a terrific job with it. Bob’s last encore was How the Nights Can Fly and, given the audience reaction, you have to wonder why this song has never gotten much more attention.
On a personal note it gets more difficult to share. I suspect that most of us who visit this site have never met Bob and think of him on a very different level. His music hits such a personal chord, but in a way that we don’t have the talent to express. Consequently, we elevate our perception of him to an almost (sorry, if this is leaning too far towards hyperbole) mythical level. This is probably most accurate for those of us who have listened to his music for forty-plus years. When we made our plans to go to Toronto I had a weird sort of apprehension about finally seeing and, perhaps, meeting Bob. It was more than just a little bit of awe as well as, truthfully, a little bit of concern. (At one pre-concert point I confided to my wife, “Jeez, what if he’s a jerk?”)
Well, he’s not. Bob Lind was one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. After the show he stayed and talked to whoever wanted to visit with him. I spent far more than my share of time with him (and would have spent significantly more if I hadn’t felt embarrassingly guilty about monopolizing him). What was particularly notable to me was his level of appreciation for my/our support. He spent as much time thanking me as I did thanking him. He was generous and warm and seemed truly grateful.
Too often we’re let down by expectations we set too high. Not for me. Not this time.
Thanks again, Bob.
T