Gig Review

Written and submitted by Christine Bode.

Three of my best girlfriends and I drove for over 10 hours from Guelph to Oakville to Scarborough to Kingston to Quebec City this past weekend because I desperately wanted to go see Bob Geldof again in concert. I insisted I would turn them all into the huge fan that I am and we'd have a wonderful opportunity for a girls weekend with Jen who was visiting from Perth, Western Australia. I found a great package deal over the Internet through Hospitality Canada and booked us adjoining rooms at the Gouverneur Sainte-Foy, which was less than a fifteen-minute drive to the concert venue. Jen was the only one who had seen Bob in concert before, but Cheryl and Linda agreed that he performed brilliantly and they were really pleased to have had the opportunity to see him live.

Geldof graced an audience of perhaps 500 plus with his presence on Saturday night at le Scène Molson Dry at the Quebec City Summer Festival. For those of you who have never been to Quebec City, it is the most beautiful city in Canada and in the Province of Quebec and evokes a European atmosphere unlike anywhere else in this country.

Bob took the stage after a cabaret style, alternative rock performance by Canadian artist Hawksley Workman that many seemed to enjoy. After opening with "A Gospel Song", Bob greeted the audience who braved the rain under their umbrellas and plastic rain slickers in French and told everyone that "ma femme est Français." He spoke a little bit in French and then said he couldn't speak it anymore because his French is shit. I thought it wasn't half bad. He also remarked on how the rain reminded him of Ireland.

A short, skinny guy in an orange raincoat with long, frizzy, dirt brown hair pulled back in a partial pony tail stood in front of me with his friend. He kept me from watching the whole show front row centre, and he gave me hell for rubbing up against his arm accidentally when I was dancing in my space so you can imagine what kind of friendly French guy he was! I met a couple of Bob's fans from his official website message board and forum there, including Marie-Josée and Lenair, a.k.a. Cathy and her husband, Jean who had come all the way from Kitchener-Waterloo. It was really good to be with some other die-hard Geldof lovers and I'm sure they enjoyed the show even more than I did.

I remember many, if not most of the songs Bob played but I couldn't remember them in chronological order because I was so busy taking pictures. I wasn't going to miss out on a perfect opportunity this time as cameras seemed to be allowed in the venue. I know that he played: "A Gospel Song", "The Great Song of Indifference", "Love or Something", "Crucified Me", "Walking Back To Happiness", "One For Me", "Mudslide", "My Birthday Suit", "I Don't Like Mondays", "Rat Trap", "Banana Republic", "Room 19", "Attitude Chicken", "The Soft Soil", "A Sex Thing" and "A Hole To Fill". He did one encore and seemed to be happy to get the show over with. I didn't think he had much fun at this concert so maybe it's time for him to take a break from the Sex, Age and Death tour and work on something new to perform.

The band was as excellent as ever and I have to comment on how great Bob Loveday looks! He's lost a lot of weight since I saw him at the Palais Royale last September and really looks fit and healthy. I missed Jamie Moses on guitar this time, but his replacement Johnny Turnbull was just as accomplished.

This was my third time seeing Bob in concert (the first time was in 1993 for his Happy Club tour) and I have to tell you that this particular experience wasn't anything near as exciting for me as the Palais Royale concert (because I got to meet him that night and talk to him for two minutes and I hadn't seen him in nine years), but that's not to say that I didn't REALLY, REALLY enjoy it! I was hoping that Bob would at least wear a different suit this time and I had heard all of his stories before. There was little to no variation in them. He didn't talk as much to the audience as he did in Toronto last September. So it just didn't feel very fresh and unique to me, but it was Bob, which means it was a wonderful night!

At one point near the beginning of the concert I yelled out "We love you Bob!" when things got quiet enough for him to hear and he replied with "Yeah, I know you love me. I love me too. In fact, I probably love me way more than you do!" And you know, I thought that was a bit of a snide remark. It made me feel as if I swallowed an eel. I wished I hadn't said it. I felt like yelling back "Well I hope so! You should!"

I don't know if that was his intention or if he was just being his lovely irascible self. But you know, we came a long way to see him again and made almost as big an effort to be there as he did, so maybe in the future he could think of a more gracious retort for his fans.

I think he did see us there in the front of the stage and my friend Jen said he smiled at me and waved his water bottle at me as he was walking off the stage at the end of the encore. I think he did too, but I can't be sure. All I know is that I felt like a bit of an idiot afterwards and I know that Bob doesn't suffer fools gladly, so I sure don't want to be construed as one.

I went to Quebec City with three of my best girlfriends for a long weekend because Bob was playing there and I wanted to see him again. As it turned out, seeing Bob wasn't the best part of the weekend...it was the time I got to spend with my friends in such a gorgeous city! Bob would probably be happy to hear that. I do have a very full life outside of the realm of Geldof even if I am a loyal serf in his Kingdom.

Christine Bode