Music Concerts

Over the years we have seen a number of musical acts in concert in Toronto.  Toronto is just "down the road" (1 1/2 hours) from where we live and a large city so all the big musical acts perform there.

However we haven't been to any recently because we can never get tickets.  Adele was here last year; tickets sold out before we could get through, Lady Gaga is coming, again tickets all sold out right away.........BUT.....go back a few days later and you can get tickets but at super inflated prices, from people reselling them.  A couple of "good" seats, not the best seats by any means but good ones are priced at over $2,000 each, who can afford prices like that?  The "nose bleed" seats were heading towards the $200 mark.  We saw a Shania Twain concert in "nose bleed" seats and swore never to sit in those seats again as they are too far back.

So I guess I will have to make do with Youtube videos.  Oh and the reason I wanted to see Lady Gaga is that I would bet she puts on a great show with all the dancers and costume changes etc?  Some of her music is not to my taste, some of it is; overall though I know she puts her heart and soul into her stage performances.

Here is one of my favourite Lady Gaga songs:




and another one:

Saw Tina Turner in concert Thursday night.......

and she was fantastic. Her energy was stunning. I mean I would love to have half her energy. She came on stage just after 8pm, she had a half hour break and the show was over at 10:30pm.

Now on the tickets it said that no photography was allowed, so I didn't take my camera, big mistake, as other people brought cameras. Dh took some photos with his cell phone, but they were awful.

She had a few outfit changes, and from what I can gather her outfits were designed by Bob Mackie, they were all lovely. She suited the short mini dresses the best in my opinion, as her legs are so long.

We had floor seats, which meant we stood most of the time, and as I am not the tallest out there, it was hard to see at times. I found it easier to watch the big screens. Here is a link which shows a video of her and you'll see some of the costumes and music. Also here is the review from our newspaper.

This is what she sang:

Steamy Windows
Typical Male
River Deep, Mountain High
What You Get Is What You See
Better Be Good To Me/Won't Get Fooled Again
Acid Queen
What's Love Got To Do With It
Private Dancer
We Don't Need Another Hero

Intermission

Help
Undercover Agent for the Blues
Let's Stay Together
I Can't Stand the Rain
Jumpin' Jack Flash/It's Only Rock and Roll
Goldeneye
Addicted to Love
The Best
Proud Mary

Encore

Nutbush City Limits
Be Tender With Me, Baby

If any of you have an opportunity to see her in concert, do go as it really is worth it.

That's it for us for concerts this year. Haven't got tickets yet for anything in 2009.

Music.........

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I love all sorts of Music and if someone had to ask me what sort of music I liked the best, I wouldn't have a clue what to say? I really enjoy going to live concerts and we generally try to go to a couple each year. I have put a You Tube link on each artists name with a song I really like from each artist.


This year its Celine Dion and Tina Turner. Last year we saw Sarah Brightman and The Dixie Chicks. We've seen both those acts twice now. We've also seen Elton John and although we had terrible seats he's one of the best artists out there. We saw Shania Twain a few years ago, again had horrible seats. Then the last two years we have been to Dollywood and seen the Kingdom Heirs in concert, love their music.


The best concert entertainment wise though had to be Cher's Halloween Bash. Now costumes were optional, so of course me and dh didn't dress up. However when we entered the Sky Dome we should have clicked this was going to be no ordinary concert. I have never seen as many good looking sailors in all my life, and there were so many people who looked like Cher it was crazy.........however I don't think one of them was a woman!!!! I wouldn't even let dh use the bathroom, as I didn't know if he would have come out alive!!!!!

There were a number of other groups playing but the one I remember most was The Village People. Everyone was up dancing, even dh was tapping his feet.......... Then when Cher came on stage the energy she had was fantastic. It was a night to remember.

I will say I had a heck of a time picking just one song from each one of these artists......

We saw Celine Dion in Concert on Thursday night.......

and she was good, I mean really good. We bought the tickets last November and paid the most we have ever had for a ticket at $211.50 each. However we had great seats and they were worth every penny. I had hoped to take some photo's of the outside of the Air Canada Centre but there was construction everywhere, as they are building condos all around it.

Her opening act was a guy named Gordie Brown. Now I have to say I have never heard of him, but he was the best opening act we have ever seen. He was a comedian and an impersonator, and he was good. He had the audience in stitches and we all stood up and clapped at the end of his act.

The photo below is of him impersonating Elton John.



When Celine came on the whole place was on their feet. She can sing and other than the chest thumping thing that she does you can't fault her. Her voice is as good as on her Cd's.

She had a square stage and she rose up out of the middle to start her show. In costume one, which was my favourite.

Where the band was located, those sections also rose and lowered which was pretty neat.

It also had a moving floor, like the ones you see in airports. The dancers did some nifty moves on that floor.

As I said the stage was square in the middle of the Air Canada Centre, basically in the middle of the ice rink, as that's where the Toronto Maple Leafs play and the Raptors. There were two arms extending out of it and we were sitting pretty close to one of the arms. Both Celine and the dancers kept coming to the end of the arms, so we got a great view of her.

Now this is Celine in her second outfit, wasn't keen on this one.

This was her third outfit, wasn't keen on this one either.

It was the shoes/legging/strap things on this outfit that was weird.

This is what she wore on her 1st encore and it was a lovely dress, unfortunately she didn't face our way so I had to take a photo of her on the jumbo-tron.

Her 2nd encore she sang the song from Titanic Now I didn't take a photo of this outfit, as I took a video instead. Now as ds points out if I post it on this blog, I could get into trouble. I didn't like this outfit either, it was a black floaty dress.

I sound like the fashion police don't I...LOL However as I said at the beginning, you can't fault her voice she has a lovely voice.

The only downside to the night was going home. It should have only taken us 30 to 40 minutes and it took us 1 1/2 hours to get home, as Highway 427 was down to one lane due to roadworks, however you first had to get three lanes to go into one lane. Whose ever bright idea that was wants fired, as not only was their a Celine Dion concert on, there was a concert on at Molsen Amphitheatre, plus the CNE is on, and the Chinese Lantern Festival at Ontario Place. The roads were busy, we were not impressed.

Then on our highway to get home the new part where Daisy (GPS system) always has a hissy fit that too was closed off, so we had to make a detour there. Luckily we had turned Daisy off as neither of us were in the mood to hear her wittering on!!!!

Despite that we had a super night. If any of you get a chance to see her in concert do, its well worth the money, and I am not a big fan of hers normally.

Altogether now."Well I had the time of my life....

bill medley: Now I've had the time of my life
No I never felt like this before
Yes I swear it's the truth
and I owe it all to you

jennifer warnes: 'Cause I've had the time of my life
and I owe it all to you

bill medley: I've been waiting for so long
Now I've finally found someone
To stand by me

jennifer warnes: We saw the writing on the wall
As we felt this magical fantasy

Both: Now with passion in our eyes
There's no way we could disguise it secretly
So we take each other's hand
'Cause we seem to understand the urgency

bill medley: just remember

jennifer warnes: You're the one thing

bill medley: I can't get enough of

jennifer warnes: So I'll tell you something

Both:This could be love because

(CHORUS)
Both: I've had the time of my life
No I never felt this way before
Yes I swear it's the truth
And I owe it all to you

Dirty Dancing - (i’ve had) the time of my life - bill medley lyrics

Well if you haven't figured it out yet, that's THE song from Dirty Dancing, and we went to the theatre today and saw it, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto.

They had a number of tickets on sale for $45 each, so we decided to take advantage of the deal, but they were up in the nose bleed section, and for someone who is afraid of heights I wasn't thrilled, but I concentrated on everything else and I survived. I only took the one photo inside the theatre and got told off for doing that, and its a crappy photo.



Now I must admit I prefer the movie. Its not to say that the actors in the theatre were not good, but honestly who can top Patrick Swayze? If I wasn't married and Patrick came up to me and offered to whisk me away to a tropical island would I resist, heck no, I'd be dragging him to that island as fast as my little legs would carry me!!! I also think Jennifer Grey has that something special about her in the movie, and the girl playing baby just didn't have that same innocence about her.

Just in case you need a reminder of how good Patrick Swayze looks watch this. Told dh he doesn't hurl me up in the air like Johnny does, but as he reminded me we both have bad backs, plus I must be 100lbs heavier than Baby!! I melt when Johnny sings the song close to the end......I think I am having a hot flash now....LOL

The actor who played Penny was good though, and had legs up to her arm pits. I think she took my share of legs when you know who (God) was handing legs out, as I have short legs.

Now one of the singers was Melissa O'Neil who won Canadian Idol in 2005. Don't worry if you haven't heard of her, most people haven't, but she is a great singer.

Just along the road from The Royal Alexandra Theatre is the Princess of Wales Theatre. We saw the Phantom of The Opera there, and in October, the Sound of Music starts. Here is a photo of the theatre:



Across the road from the Royal Alex is Roy Thompson Hall, which is quite a weird shaped building. Here is a piece about Roy Thompson himself.



Now one of the good things about today was we met dd for lunch as she lives close to downtown Toronto. So it was good to see her in the flesh. Remember the accent post from the other day? So I order omlette and toast and when I see the toast it has no butter on it, so I ask the server for some butter........well here we go again, he has NO CLUE what I want, dd has to translate for me.........how sad is that............of course dd and dh found this amusing? Did I mention that I DO speak English. This was the view from the restaurant, the CN Tower.

Would you believe that going up the top of the CN Tower was how I discovered I didn't like heights, I was NOT WELL at all, and have never been up since. No amount of money would get me up that thing again, I'm telling you, I swear the whole building was swaying back and forward at a great speed.......did I tell you I feel as sick as a dog on the bridges that we use to cross over from Canada to the USA, they also sway!!! No wonder I am never in a good mood by the time we get to the customs booth........dh reckons one of these days I am going to get the glove search and it will serve me right...........he finds that amusing.

I took other photo's but didn't want to bore you.

Now have to say "Daisy" (GPS system), was pretty quiet on the way downtown, as dh followed her instructions, however on the way back she had plenty to say as dh took the collector lanes rather than the express lanes, as its faster, and I will agree with dh on this. Then of course we got to the highway close to home, which is new and of course she got lost and had a hissy fit {{{SIGH}}}

Pleased to say that as I am typing this I have got the feeling back in my behind, as they were the most uncomfortable seats ever, figured that was a piece of information you would want to know.

I will say I am not convinced theatre is the be all and end all. I prefer live concerts, and you'll be pleased to know we are going to see Celine Dion on the 28th of August, so will have a post on that. We generally go to a couple of live concerts a year. That's the joy of living so close to Toronto.