Kathleen Edwards- Garrick Centre September 29, 2012

When Kathleen Edwards postponed her show back in April I was sadly disappointed. I saw her at the Winnipeg Folk Festival a couple years back, but sitting in a large field far back from the stage isn't the experience I want to remember Kathleen Edwards by. A few weeks ago, there was a report that she suffered Anaphylactic shock from a wasp sting following a show in Windsor, but fortunately she recovered and didn't have to cancel or postpone any shows. Phew!

An opportunity to see her in a medium/small (indoor) venue, not as an opener, but as a headliner up-close is much more preferred. I probably have more live recordings from her than anyone else, except maybe Wilco and though I sound obsessed I don't feel a urgent need to see her live multiple multiple times. This show filled the bill, I stood dead centre on the floor with a good view of the stage and in the sweet spot for sound, so I was happy. Though I like to complain about the Garrick Centre as being a crappy venue, I must admit it has it's good points. The Garrick is a former movie theatre and it's hall is divided into two sections. The floor (closest to the stage) has had it's seats removed and since it was a theatre the floor slopes up away from the stage. If you can stand the feeling of leaning forward with your feet pushed to front of your shoes, you are treated to a good view because you are elevated on a incline. Beneficial for short people, like myself who have a hard time seeing when tall guys push their way in front of me. The second half of the venue is the seated area (think, movie theatre seating) with one aisle up the middle, usually for the older folks that don't want to stand or care to be close. The sound was better than other shows I've been to there, but it might have been my positioning and there were still signs of that boomy, "big hall sound" because the acoustics in this building are not suited for concerts.

Here are some other thoughts and observations about the concert (I do love point-form!):

• Interesting to see what type of crowd Kathleen Edwards draws. There seemed to be a lot of "white-hairs" in the crowd especially in the seated section. There wasn't any empty seats up there, while the floor was unusually sparse and not crowded. There was still a good number of college-age kids and middle-agers like me, but there were a lot of old people and the best way to describe it would be a "folk fest" type crowd...which is cool, of course!
• Before performing Human Touch (Bruce Springsteen cover) together, Jen Grant (opener) walked down the stairs from the back of the hall to the stage giving away copies of a book Kathleen had read and enjoyed called, Above All Things by Tanis Rideout. She got multiple copies from the writer and she was going to give some away during her shows, complete with a trivia question. Cross promotion...?
• Hockey Skates was performed with only Gord Tough and Jim Bryson on guitars. The trio is touring through the U.S. this month (including Fargo tonight).
• 8 of the 17 songs performed were from her latest album, Voyageur. Only one song from Back To Me (Back To Me) and four from Failer.
• During the first encore song, Sidecar, Kathleen and Jim Bryson performed unplugged with one mic for their vocals and 2 acoustic guitars. Though I wasn't standing too far from the stage, on the recording the sound is soft, so crank up the volume for that one song to hear it.

Overall the recording sounds fine and because I wasn't squeezed by people tightly around me, the crowd chatter isn't too bad. I took lots of photos, but as usual I took a lot of blurry ones so the clearest are the ones I'm posting. Generally Kathleen Edwards is cool with live taping so feel free to trade and share the show (NO selling!!). I'll probably post this on Dime soon, but I wanted to share it here first!
Enjoy!

KATHLEEN EDWARDS
Garrick Centre
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
September 29, 2012
Audience master

01. Empty Threat
02. Chameleon/Comedian
03. Asking For Flowers
04. I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory
05. House Full Of Empty Rooms
06. Goodnight, California
07. Going To Hell
08. Hockey Skates
09. Human Touch (w/Jen Grant)
10. Six O'Clock News
11. Back To Me
12. A Soft Place To Land
13. Change The Sheets
14. For The Record

Encore
15. Sidecar (w/Jim Bryson) "unplugged"
16. Mercury
17. 12 Bellevue

KATHLEEN EDWARDS- 2012-09-29 FLAC. rar