Concert Review: Our Lady Peace

I went to Rexall Place for the second night in a row on Tuesday. Monday, I was there to see the Oilers destroy (well...beat, anyway) the Detroit Red Wings. It was a great night. Tuesday was less great. It was still fine, don't get me wrong, but it was nothing compared to Monday's victory...with the entire arena chanting "Manny! Manny!" and most everyone was in unison, a rare occurence. Anywhoo, I saw Our Lady Peace play on Tuesday night. They were...a step up from mediocre, I'd say. I saw them three years ago in the same venue. They used a lot of the same "you're our friends, not our fans" bullshit which made it seem even more phony the second time around.

Good Things About the Concert:
1. There were no cheesy Nickleback-esque pyrotechnics.
2. Rexall was made into a half bowl, so pretty much any seat was a good seat.
3. After references about the Oilers' previous night victory, the crowd would break out into "Let's go Oilers *clap* *clap* *clap-clap-clap*" and the band would have to wait a few seconds before the crowd would stop.
4. Raine Maida climbed into the audience.
5. Maybe he wasn't drunk.

Bad Things About the Concert:
1. They didn't play Thief or Life.
2. They played songs from their new album, which was to be expected.
3. Everything they said sounded phony.
4. The sound was really bad...a lot of the time I couldn't even hear his voice.
5. He let the crowd sing 4am in its entirety and of course people don't seem to know the second verse. If we come to a concert, we want to hear the band play.
6. Everyone started cheering as if it was the end of the song before the "Doesn't anybody ever know, the world's a subway," portion of Superman's Dead.
7. The whole concert was very similar to their 2003 Live CD, but less good.
8. It wasn't worth $56.75. End of Story.

5 Songs OLP Should Play at Concerts but Never Do Anymore:
1. Neon Crossing (Naveed, 1994)
2. Dirty Walls (Naveed, 1994)
3. Blister (Happiness...is not a Fish You can Catch, 1999)
4. Made to Heal (Spiritual Machines, 2000)
5. Oskar (Clumsy, 1997)