Our Lady Peace Live at the Cleveland House of Blues

Last night Our Lady Peace rolled into the Cleveland House of Blues...I've been looking forward to this night for a couple months now...I was not disappointed...

First we had to get through the opening act, Meese...They're from Colorado...They sounded better live then on their MySpace...By better, I mean more energy, and a dirtier sound...That may just have been caused by a bad sound guy...You couldn't understand a word from the singer...I would describe them as a bad mix of Weezer and The Fray...But they have a poppy sound that will win some people over...My wife included...She enjoyed them...

Then the stage was set for Our Lady Peace...They made the crowd wait a couple more minutes then we wanted to...But when they came out the place went crazy...They Opened up with a new song...Monkey Brains...It was rocking...

OLP sounded tight...Duncan Coutts' bass was thumping the room...Jeremy Taggert was working the drums with fire and strength...Steve Mazur ripped it up all night on guitar...AWESOME...



And Raine Maida didn't miss a note, and was the stellar front man he has always been...

Next they played the classic Superman's Dead...Audience participation a must...And Cleveland did not disappoint the band, as Maida stopped and said, "This is gonna be a good night!"

Then they played Angels/Losing/Sleep...Flowed right into Innocent...More crowd participation...Followed by fan favorite, Clumsy...Insert even more crowd participation...And an awesome jam at the end of it...OLP was killing it...

At this point Maida stopped and thanked the fans for their support over the years...Then gave a shout out to a little place from back in the day, called Peabody's...A little dump I spent far too many nights in...Yes I called it a dump, but I have nothing but good memories from there...Just wish once, that my band got paid with money instead of beer there....




Then they played Paper Moon and Escape Artist...Both from the new album Burn Burn...Which if you missed my review of that, here ya go.... http://thebeezewax.blogspot.com/2009/08/beeze-reviews-burn-burn.html

Paper Moon was great, as I expected...Escape Artist didn't disappoint me either...I had been hoping that they would play it...I just wish more people knew it...That will be a good audience participation song...

Now the next few songs I may have jumbled out of order...I had a few drinks, and I was just enjoying the show...Not taking notes...

Is Anybody Home was started out with just Maida, and his acoustic guitar, and the crowd...We did well again...the song finished with the whole band blasting in....Chills were had....

Then came Somewhere Out There...Insert audience participation....The tempo was slowed down with Bring Back the Sun....Then picked back up with One Man Army...That was followed by the classic Naveed...The whole time the crowd singing along...Then came the first single from Burn Burn, All You Did Was Save My Life...Again the crowd got involved...And Maida got into the crowd....he's made a habit of climbing into the balconies and rafters and getting closer with the fans...And he taunted a fan for sitting...Awesome...

OLP left the stage for a couple moments...All bands do this...We know they're coming back out for a couple more songs...But we still clap and chant, and hell some people still throw a lighter in the air...

When they returned to the stage, OLP started the encore with fan favorite, and city challenge sing-a-long, 4AM...If you don't know...4Am is a song that many people have connected with over the years, and the audience no matter what town, will sing the hell out of it...Cleveland did not fail..And yes, I sang along too...

Then they did In Repair...One of my favorites, as well as one of the little Beeze's favorites...No I didn't bring him...In the middle of In Repair, Maida and the band dropped in a little taste of Life, before blasting back into the powerful finish of Repair...

They finished the night with Starseed...Rocking the hell out of the House of Blues, with the help of their fans, of course....Including one fan who jumped up on stage and started singing with Maida...Raine gave up the mic to him and let him take it to the lead...Very cool...Even cooler was when the dude jumped back into the crowd and was catching some sh!t...Maida spoke up and said "Leave him alone...That takes a lot of courage." The band finished out Starseed, and the show was over...




I was left wanting more...A sign of a great show...

The sound was great...Great set list...Yes there were other songs I wanted to hear...But if it was up to me they would have played another hour...some people may not want to hear this...Or read it...But I prefer OLP,and probably many other bands, in a smaller venue like the House of Blues...You feel like you're part of something special...

My wife had never seen Our Lady Peace live...Hell she didn't even know who they were until I tricked her into marrying me...She had come to like some songs because of me playing them all the time...And she loves the new album...But now she's hooked...She couldn't believe how everyone knew every word, to every song...On the way home she said, "You have to put ore of their songs on my ipod, so I can learn them for next time." That's my girl!

Tickets were $22.50 before service charges...That's a bargain...I would have gladly paid more...It was an amazing night....If OLP rolls through your town...Check them out...And Check out the new album...And check out the old ones too...You gotta be ready to sing-a-long...

Later, the Beeze.