Ontario, Part the Second: Tim Minchin
Jun. 7th, 2011 04:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sgt_tibbsThe second part of my Toronto trip, in which I saw the fantastic Tim Minchin. Warning: this post contains a lot of spoilers! It is also incredibly long. I really don't have the ability to edit myself very well.
I'd been planning on, and in fact very much looking forward to, meeting Julianna and the rest of the forum folk at the restaurant before the show, but it unfortunately didn't work out like that. My brothers were coincidentally in Ontario with their band, at the start of a month-long tour, and they'd been nice enough to give me a lift out to Kingston, where I got to spend a fantastic couple of days with the delightful Sarah K. I, in return, had managed to miss all 3 of the shows they'd played during the week. So when Christian asked if I wanted to come with them to London on the 2nd, I said yes despite feeling some trepidation. And the drive out there was really quite pleasant (especially the bit where we detoured to find a creek that had some truly impressive rope swings), and the boys' show was quite good. Plus, Christian had assured me there'd be no problem getting back to Toronto for 4:30 the next day. Really, I should've known better. I mean, I know my brothers. And I know the kind of vans they buy.
And it certainly didn't help that, in order to load into the venue, Christian had parked on the sidewalk, wedged between two trees, so that the next morning we had quite an ordeal trying to maneuver the van so that it was in a position to be towed. And then by the time the CAA guy had gotten the van to Canadian Tire, whatever it was that had been wrong with it was magically fixed, if by 'magically fixed' you mean 'revealed to be an intermittent, undetectable problem that could come back at any time', which I'm sure is going to make the rest of their tour an absolute delight. But the upshot of all that was that with the help of a couple of dueling GPS devices, my older brother's crazy driving skills, and a whooooooole lotta stress on my part, we managed to arrive at the Winter Garden Theatre with a full ten minutes to spare, which at least left me with time enough to freshen up somewhat so that I didn't feel quite so travel-squzzy for the show. On my way up to the theatre I ran into Sasha and Sarah, who introduced me to some of the friends they'd brought down with them for the show. I marveled at Sarah's newly-tinted hair for a bit, and then we split up to find our respective seats.
My seat wasn't quite as good as I thought it would be (the seating plan I'd looked at online was less than accurate; but then I'd suspected it might be). I was still in a pretty good spot; just off from the center of the row and not too far back from the stage. It's a very pretty theatre and the piano sitting alone on the stage was incredibly striking. I ended up getting told off by one of the ushers for trying to get a picture of it, although I hardly think that counts as taking photos of “the show”. In any case, I'm fairly crap at getting cameras to do what I want them to, and I probably wouldn't have had time to get a decent shot. We didn't have long to wait until the man himself walked out on stage and launched straight into Rock And Roll Nerd.
It's always neat to see how Minchin alters the songs depending on where he's playing; for instance changing it to “He doesn't like going to bars,” which really tickled me, especially how he pronounced it, although afterwards it occurred to me that Canadians do know the word 'pub'. More than, say, the word 'bap'. But I digress. I believe it was during RnRN that a few late-comers up in the balcony walked in front of Tim's light, leading him on a digression about how his face is not luminous in itself; there's always a source. It's stuff like that that makes a live show so memorable. And it was great to see the way he got back into the song again. I just don't understand how anyone's face is that expressive!
After the opening song, Tim talked about the room a bit (“it’s like a forest, but... inside. And upstairs!”), and to thank everyone for coming out to see him (“although I’m from father away, so I came first, and then you... I mean...”).There was also some discussion as to the whereabouts of the people who should have been in the two empty seats in the front row, and I really wish I was better at yelling things out, as I was very tempted to offer to sit in one of the seats. As it is I sometimes find it difficult to speak loudly to people I know, let alone in a room full of strangers. So no front row seat for me. Then again, those seats were on the other side of the stage, so I wouldn’t have been able to see Mr. Minchin’s hands while he was playing the piano, which is such a fascinating thing to watch.
I’m a bit dodgy on the order of things after this. He did a mix of older songs, as well as some from the new tour. The only thing I wasn’t sure I recognized was a bit of stand up involving a hilarious mime about going to the hairdressers, but I didn’t find it a detriment that I’d heard everything before. It was all just as funny and I found some of the songs, like Cont(ext), even better this time around, since I knew what was coming and no one around me did. I also think this was possibly my favourite version of “If I Didn’t Have You” since The Secret Policeman’s Ball (which was the first time I saw it, and thus will always have a place in my heart). I really liked the way when he was listing things that "grow over time", he trailed off after "a sponge, or bigotry, or..." as if he were trying to think of something else, and left the backing track to supply "or a banana", then got this aha! look on his face. Beautiful.
The crowd seemed to be a good mix of old fans and newbies. There was a huge cheer when Minchin announced “If I Didn’t Have You” after a bit of preamble, leading him to jokingly fume that he “could’ve skipped all that!” On the other hand, the girl sitting next to me had definitely never heard Prejudice before. Although I think she only worked out what a ‘ginger’ is about half-way through the song. It would be nice if there was some way to work the meaning of that word into an earlier part of the show, but I don’t know if there’d be a way to do it that wouldn’t then ruin the set-up of Prejudice. I was also amused by all of the gasps during the build-up to Lullaby, although I’m fairly certain at least one of the people in the row in front of me already knew the song, since it looked like she did the air quotes for “shaking”, and it’s nice to see someone else has that particular compulsion.
Again, I’m very shaky on the order of things. I’m not sure how Tim got onto different terms for dictator, but I now really want a button that says ‘Gadaffi is a Cock Spud’. Ross Noble also came up at one point, but I can’t remember why. I’m pretty sure he did “Thank You God” and “The Pope Song” one after the other, which were both ace. But now I keep getting “Thank You God” stuck in my head and can’t remember all the words. I was going to wait and buy the new cd when I’m in the UK this August, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to hold out until then. I really enjoyed this performance of Confessions; there was a prolonged bout of what I can only describe as cackling after the third verse, which probably would’ve been tedious if it weren’t for Tim’s face during the whole thing, which instead made it hilarious.
The show was basically brilliant in every respect. The only problem I had with it was that it seemed to go by so fucking fast. When Minchin said there were only two things left, a small naïve voice in the back of my head went ‘until... intermission?’ But my sadness turned to delight as I noticed that Tim had kept the glass of wine he’d been drinking from intermittently during the show in his hand as he went back up to the mic. I am so overjoyed that I got to see Storm live. Especially as Tim had made some comment like “imagine if I did Storm now?” during one of his encores in Cardiff, the tease. So yes, that was absolutely brilliant. And then he went back to the piano to play out the end of Storm, and forgot the mic in the stand until he went to sing a bit, and his face was just priceless. Dark Side was fantastic as well, and I was again grateful for the view I had of the piano, as the extended solos were amazing to watch.
Tim walked off to a well deserved standing ovation. He then came back and gave the audience a choice of encores, “Christmas or Tumor?”, which led to quite a shouting match, including a lot of people yelling out songs that weren’t either of the given options. I almost yelled out Hallelujah, but see earlier re: my inability to shout things out. I really need to work on that. Someone yelled “Ten Foot Cock” which Tim claimed he wouldn’t be able to remember, but he was glad that was a phrase people would shout out at his shows. He then decided that calling it “Tumor” had been too much of a spoiler, although I’m not sure the 7th word in a song can really be considered all that spoilery. In any case, of the two songs I was definitely rooting for White Wine In The Sun. It always brings up really great memories for me. Plus when I saw it in Cardiff, someone yelled out “Cheese!” at the end, which was sort of hilarious at the time, but it was still really great to get to see it done again unsullied. Also like the aside after "rather break bread with Dawkins than Desmond Tutu", something like "I've met Dawkins now, and I'm not actually sure.." Another standing ovation brought Tim back for “Second Encore”, and then we were done.
I reunited with Sarah & co, and we headed outside to find the stage door, where I finally got to meet the delightful Julianna. We all waited together around a slightly creepy hot air vent in the sidewalk, randomly clapping anyone who came out the stage door (I hope they didn’t find that off-putting; some of them grinned at it, so I didn’t feel too bad). Once Tim came out we decided to wait and give the other people a chance to talk to him, which I prefer to do anyway, cos then I don’t feel like I’m holding everyone else up. I managed to come across as quite a babbling idiot, but Tim was absolutely delightful (although drawing on someone’s wrists is not exactly the best way to get them to focus!). I got everything signed that I wanted to, and offered a variety of bribes if he’d be willing to play Hallelujah at one of the shows I’ll be at in the next few months. We settled on a combination of my suggestions (wine, chocolate and my first born), so I’m now trying to figure out how to make a baby out of chocolate. I got a couple of great pictures, got some lovely hugs from both Tim and Julianna (I love hugs), and then had to get off to check into my hostel. Once that was done I managed to rejoin Sarah and the others for some drinks and learned how to order a beer in two more languages (bringing my total up to 10, I think). All in all, it was a lovely way to end the evening.
I'd been planning on, and in fact very much looking forward to, meeting Julianna and the rest of the forum folk at the restaurant before the show, but it unfortunately didn't work out like that. My brothers were coincidentally in Ontario with their band, at the start of a month-long tour, and they'd been nice enough to give me a lift out to Kingston, where I got to spend a fantastic couple of days with the delightful Sarah K. I, in return, had managed to miss all 3 of the shows they'd played during the week. So when Christian asked if I wanted to come with them to London on the 2nd, I said yes despite feeling some trepidation. And the drive out there was really quite pleasant (especially the bit where we detoured to find a creek that had some truly impressive rope swings), and the boys' show was quite good. Plus, Christian had assured me there'd be no problem getting back to Toronto for 4:30 the next day. Really, I should've known better. I mean, I know my brothers. And I know the kind of vans they buy.
And it certainly didn't help that, in order to load into the venue, Christian had parked on the sidewalk, wedged between two trees, so that the next morning we had quite an ordeal trying to maneuver the van so that it was in a position to be towed. And then by the time the CAA guy had gotten the van to Canadian Tire, whatever it was that had been wrong with it was magically fixed, if by 'magically fixed' you mean 'revealed to be an intermittent, undetectable problem that could come back at any time', which I'm sure is going to make the rest of their tour an absolute delight. But the upshot of all that was that with the help of a couple of dueling GPS devices, my older brother's crazy driving skills, and a whooooooole lotta stress on my part, we managed to arrive at the Winter Garden Theatre with a full ten minutes to spare, which at least left me with time enough to freshen up somewhat so that I didn't feel quite so travel-squzzy for the show. On my way up to the theatre I ran into Sasha and Sarah, who introduced me to some of the friends they'd brought down with them for the show. I marveled at Sarah's newly-tinted hair for a bit, and then we split up to find our respective seats.
My seat wasn't quite as good as I thought it would be (the seating plan I'd looked at online was less than accurate; but then I'd suspected it might be). I was still in a pretty good spot; just off from the center of the row and not too far back from the stage. It's a very pretty theatre and the piano sitting alone on the stage was incredibly striking. I ended up getting told off by one of the ushers for trying to get a picture of it, although I hardly think that counts as taking photos of “the show”. In any case, I'm fairly crap at getting cameras to do what I want them to, and I probably wouldn't have had time to get a decent shot. We didn't have long to wait until the man himself walked out on stage and launched straight into Rock And Roll Nerd.
It's always neat to see how Minchin alters the songs depending on where he's playing; for instance changing it to “He doesn't like going to bars,” which really tickled me, especially how he pronounced it, although afterwards it occurred to me that Canadians do know the word 'pub'. More than, say, the word 'bap'. But I digress. I believe it was during RnRN that a few late-comers up in the balcony walked in front of Tim's light, leading him on a digression about how his face is not luminous in itself; there's always a source. It's stuff like that that makes a live show so memorable. And it was great to see the way he got back into the song again. I just don't understand how anyone's face is that expressive!
After the opening song, Tim talked about the room a bit (“it’s like a forest, but... inside. And upstairs!”), and to thank everyone for coming out to see him (“although I’m from father away, so I came first, and then you... I mean...”).There was also some discussion as to the whereabouts of the people who should have been in the two empty seats in the front row, and I really wish I was better at yelling things out, as I was very tempted to offer to sit in one of the seats. As it is I sometimes find it difficult to speak loudly to people I know, let alone in a room full of strangers. So no front row seat for me. Then again, those seats were on the other side of the stage, so I wouldn’t have been able to see Mr. Minchin’s hands while he was playing the piano, which is such a fascinating thing to watch.
I’m a bit dodgy on the order of things after this. He did a mix of older songs, as well as some from the new tour. The only thing I wasn’t sure I recognized was a bit of stand up involving a hilarious mime about going to the hairdressers, but I didn’t find it a detriment that I’d heard everything before. It was all just as funny and I found some of the songs, like Cont(ext), even better this time around, since I knew what was coming and no one around me did. I also think this was possibly my favourite version of “If I Didn’t Have You” since The Secret Policeman’s Ball (which was the first time I saw it, and thus will always have a place in my heart). I really liked the way when he was listing things that "grow over time", he trailed off after "a sponge, or bigotry, or..." as if he were trying to think of something else, and left the backing track to supply "or a banana", then got this aha! look on his face. Beautiful.
The crowd seemed to be a good mix of old fans and newbies. There was a huge cheer when Minchin announced “If I Didn’t Have You” after a bit of preamble, leading him to jokingly fume that he “could’ve skipped all that!” On the other hand, the girl sitting next to me had definitely never heard Prejudice before. Although I think she only worked out what a ‘ginger’ is about half-way through the song. It would be nice if there was some way to work the meaning of that word into an earlier part of the show, but I don’t know if there’d be a way to do it that wouldn’t then ruin the set-up of Prejudice. I was also amused by all of the gasps during the build-up to Lullaby, although I’m fairly certain at least one of the people in the row in front of me already knew the song, since it looked like she did the air quotes for “shaking”, and it’s nice to see someone else has that particular compulsion.
Again, I’m very shaky on the order of things. I’m not sure how Tim got onto different terms for dictator, but I now really want a button that says ‘Gadaffi is a Cock Spud’. Ross Noble also came up at one point, but I can’t remember why. I’m pretty sure he did “Thank You God” and “The Pope Song” one after the other, which were both ace. But now I keep getting “Thank You God” stuck in my head and can’t remember all the words. I was going to wait and buy the new cd when I’m in the UK this August, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to hold out until then. I really enjoyed this performance of Confessions; there was a prolonged bout of what I can only describe as cackling after the third verse, which probably would’ve been tedious if it weren’t for Tim’s face during the whole thing, which instead made it hilarious.
The show was basically brilliant in every respect. The only problem I had with it was that it seemed to go by so fucking fast. When Minchin said there were only two things left, a small naïve voice in the back of my head went ‘until... intermission?’ But my sadness turned to delight as I noticed that Tim had kept the glass of wine he’d been drinking from intermittently during the show in his hand as he went back up to the mic. I am so overjoyed that I got to see Storm live. Especially as Tim had made some comment like “imagine if I did Storm now?” during one of his encores in Cardiff, the tease. So yes, that was absolutely brilliant. And then he went back to the piano to play out the end of Storm, and forgot the mic in the stand until he went to sing a bit, and his face was just priceless. Dark Side was fantastic as well, and I was again grateful for the view I had of the piano, as the extended solos were amazing to watch.
Tim walked off to a well deserved standing ovation. He then came back and gave the audience a choice of encores, “Christmas or Tumor?”, which led to quite a shouting match, including a lot of people yelling out songs that weren’t either of the given options. I almost yelled out Hallelujah, but see earlier re: my inability to shout things out. I really need to work on that. Someone yelled “Ten Foot Cock” which Tim claimed he wouldn’t be able to remember, but he was glad that was a phrase people would shout out at his shows. He then decided that calling it “Tumor” had been too much of a spoiler, although I’m not sure the 7th word in a song can really be considered all that spoilery. In any case, of the two songs I was definitely rooting for White Wine In The Sun. It always brings up really great memories for me. Plus when I saw it in Cardiff, someone yelled out “Cheese!” at the end, which was sort of hilarious at the time, but it was still really great to get to see it done again unsullied. Also like the aside after "rather break bread with Dawkins than Desmond Tutu", something like "I've met Dawkins now, and I'm not actually sure.." Another standing ovation brought Tim back for “Second Encore”, and then we were done.
I reunited with Sarah & co, and we headed outside to find the stage door, where I finally got to meet the delightful Julianna. We all waited together around a slightly creepy hot air vent in the sidewalk, randomly clapping anyone who came out the stage door (I hope they didn’t find that off-putting; some of them grinned at it, so I didn’t feel too bad). Once Tim came out we decided to wait and give the other people a chance to talk to him, which I prefer to do anyway, cos then I don’t feel like I’m holding everyone else up. I managed to come across as quite a babbling idiot, but Tim was absolutely delightful (although drawing on someone’s wrists is not exactly the best way to get them to focus!). I got everything signed that I wanted to, and offered a variety of bribes if he’d be willing to play Hallelujah at one of the shows I’ll be at in the next few months. We settled on a combination of my suggestions (wine, chocolate and my first born), so I’m now trying to figure out how to make a baby out of chocolate. I got a couple of great pictures, got some lovely hugs from both Tim and Julianna (I love hugs), and then had to get off to check into my hostel. Once that was done I managed to rejoin Sarah and the others for some drinks and learned how to order a beer in two more languages (bringing my total up to 10, I think). All in all, it was a lovely way to end the evening.
