But looking at you I wonder if that's true"
What's Love Got to do With it? What About Love? Love is a Battlefield, You Give Love a Bad Name...In my unscientific estimation 99% of songs are about love while the remaining 1% of songwriters really want us to dance. In fact they don't just ask, they demand it! For example The Bee Gee's commanded "You Should Be Dancing" ,J Lo forcefully summoned us to "Get on the Floor" and Billy Idol sneered his proclamation that he was "Dancing With Myself" ...whoops, that one actually is in the 99% category under "self love" songs.
My saga seeing Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds for the first time involved 14 hours in Toronto, border crossing issues, Vermont, fantastic seafood, minimal sleep and Ric Flair.
My wife purchased tickets to see Nick and the boys for my birthday. At the time Nick only had a handful of North American tour dates. He had a show in DC but we were going to be in Burlington, Vermont for vacation. Well the vacation ended on a Sunday and that's when the Toronto concert was taking place....so we jumped in the car and drove from Burlington to Montreal to get on a flight to Toronto. Little room for delays or error's on this trip. If all went well we'd land in Canada after lunch and head to the Scotia Bank Arena by 7 to catch the opening band (Cigarettes After Sex) Luckily everything was on time and we checked into our hotel mid afternoon, immediately jumped in an uber and headed out to Birreria Volo for some pre-show brews. After some delicious mid west suds and snacks we headed out to make our way towards dinner. On the car ride over we stopped a few blocks away from the restaurant and walked through some type of Fall street festival (this trip was in October) I miss the feeling of getting lost and blending into a new city or town. After the festival we headed to dinner and while sitting at the bar overlooking the open kitchen we enjoyed one of the best seafood meals we've ever had (shout out to Grey Gardens )
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and walked over to the Scotia Bank Arena. I grabbed a Molson and some popcorn and away we went. What a fantastic show. Nick crawled around the arena like a deranged spider weaving in and out of out piano ballads and distorted rock and roll opuses. It almost felt like we were all some type of experiment to Nick while he tested his powers over the audience commanding us to touch him so he could steal our energy and at one point bringing people on stage and having them stand and sit at his command like a deranged cult leaded with a great voice. Anyway if you're into passionate performances mixed in with great song-writing and a little bit of madness I recommend heading to this show when we can again. I saw Nick months later solo in Washington DC which focused on songs like this one. Figured I'd also share one of the wild tunes so you could get an idea of his range.
So Ric Flair. The picture above is from the early 2000's when I met Ric at a Verizon opening in Summerville, South Carolina. I don't remember what I said to him but he reciprocated with that million dollar smile. The only other celebrity I've seen "out in the wild" is Flavor Flav. That's a story for a different time. After the concert my wife and I crashed around midnight, got up around 4 to catch a 6am flight from Toronto to NYC and then back to Richmond. I was at my desk for work around 10:30 am thinking to myself "was that a dream? When we got off the plane at JFK I looked to my right and in a sleep deprived quiet voice I said to my wife "There's Ric Flair." I think she thought I was pointing to someone who resembled Ric but it was indeed Ric himself! Professional wrestlers don't exactly "blend in." He was standing behind some rope gate with a few security personnel around him looking tan as ever. Apparently there was a pay per view in Brooklyn the night before so I suppose he was heading home. I walked by and just offered a head nod to pay my respects. Anyone else miss traveling?
