Steve Earle, Allison Moorer & Danny Michel w/ Banned From Heaven @ Gage Park

Mental Note: A free concert held at an open park in Hamilton, Ontario may not be the best venue for seeing one of my all time rock heroes.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Hammertown hater. In fact, Hamilton has one of the most underrated music scenes in Canada, as far as I'm concerned. I also realize that, much like in T.O., the weirdos are obviously in the minority. It's just that there can be no argument to the fact that there are some very strange people in Hamilton, and when they are in the general vicinity, they definitely make their presence known. This is the distraction that I and many others, including Mr. Earle himself, had to deal with on the Friday night of this years Festival of Friends, held at Gage Park in the aforementioned township of Hamilton, Ontario.

Having rented a car for the weekend, we arrived at Gage Park around 5pm, which was just in time to see a local band called Banned From Heaven. They were a very run of the mill, old time country blues band that didn't really enthrall me in any way, but were still somewhat entertaining for what they were. There's a time and a place for their style of music, and I suppose the early evening slot at a free park festival is as good a place as any. They've apparently been playing together for years, (yet they don't have any website to speak of?!?!?) and there is certainly no shortage of talent on their part as they whizzed through a set of mostly covers to a relatively small crowd.

Photos: Banned From Heaven @ Gage Park on flickr.

Danny Michel was up next and hey! what can I say about Danny that I haven't already said before? This was a significantly different setting from the last time that I saw him. From where I was sitting, there wasn't a lot of people that were very familiar with his music and when it comes to Danny, that's a very interesting atmosphere to watch him work in. He consistently wins over every crowd he performs to, and he did so once again on Friday night. I noticed that whenever I review his show, I tend to focus on his charisma, sense of humour, and remarkable songwriting. What I've mistakenly neglected to mention is the fact that the man really knows his way around a guitar. There were a couple of times when his songs were interrupted by enthusiastic applause after an impressive display of guitar work. It was a pretty short set running about 45 minutes in length, that included Perfect, Feather Fur and Fin (which he dedicated to the massive Neapolitan Mastiff in the front row), and a heart stopping rendition of I Will Love You For Miles.

Photos: Danny Michel @ Gage Park on flickr
Myspace: Danny Michel
Video: The Invisible Man (live) on youtube

I can't say that I knew all that much about Allison Moorer going into this show. I know that she is Mrs. Steve Earle. I know that she is quite attractive. And I know that she is a country singer. That's about it.

So needless to say, I didn't know the songs that she was playing but they sounded pretty good to these ears. Her voice is far above average, and the fact that this was an acoustic set gave her the opportunity to really showcase her amazing pipes. She opened with Mockingbird and played a mesmerizing set that included an awesome cover of The Rolling Stones' Sweet Virginia. She called hubby Steve out to duet on Where Have All The Flowers Gone? which had the point and shoot cameras out in full force. Although I personally preferred her more blusier numbers, the whole set was very good, and acted as a reminder that people who say that they don't like country music most likely have not heard real country music. As a side note, I just want to mention that it's a shame that more of today's female country artists cannot put out the same type of soulful country that Allison and her sister Shelby Lynne release. I hate! hate! hate! what's referred to as quote new country unquote and the Shania's and Faith's out there are giving country music a bad name. I think it was Pete Townshend who said that new country is just cheesy R&B in a bad country hat. (I'm paraphrasing a bit I think.) Fact is that Allison does not rely on the goofy horrible-punchline-pun-as-song-title-lyricism that we hear way too much of on mainstream new country radio and I am very thankful for that. I think I've said my piece. End rant.

Photos: Allison Moorer @ Gage Park on flickr
Myspace: Allison Moorer
Video: Fairweather on youtube

It's been a while since I've been this excited to go to a concert. Steve Earle is one of the greats, and sadly, I had never gotten to see him live before Friday. The last time he was in town, I had the flu or food poisoning or something and it just didn't happen. Well I was not prepared to miss him twice in one year, so off to Hamilton I went to check out the master. He was awesome, with his charismatic ego in tact, pumping out the attitude in only the way that Steve Earle can. Of course, the crowd made it easy for someone to display a level of 'tude.

The problem with a free show is that you're always going to get a ratio of people who actually know very little about the artist that they're going to see. The people who were screaming Copperhead Road at the top of their lungs every 30 seconds as if it's the only song that he's ever done deserved to be forcefully escorted from the park. Sadly they weren't and this was incredibly irritating. Even Earle addressed this nonsense by pointing out Irritating Audience Member #1's ineptitude in thinking that there was a possibility that he wouldn't play his biggest hit. That didn't stop IAM#1 from requesting the song every 30 seconds though. That goes for IAM#2 and IAM#3 as well, while IAM#2 continued to dance like a spazz case, blocking the view of several audience members, making IAM#4 incredibly angry so that he felt that he had to ... anyways, I digress. Let's just say that the show was full of distractions, and it was evident that Mr. Earle was not impressed, and who could blame him.

That having been said, full props go to Steve for not letting the annoyances get in the way of performing a solid show for all of those who were genuinely there to enjoy his music, and although there were a couple of moments where he did tell off the disrespectful ones, overall it was the music that took over. He opened the show with Christmas In Washington from El Corazon, possibly my favorite Steve Earle album. He played other classics like I Ain't Ever Satisfied, Guitar Town and of course good ole Copperhead, and he included a few newer ones too, like Sparkle and Shine and City Of Immigrants. I suppose to keep things relatively family friendly, he kept the political ranting to a minimum, really only doing so prior to playing Immigrants. It was a fairly mellow set, and I look forward to catching the full band version another time, but there was nothing lacking in this performance to me. It's true that Steve Earle still displays a level of cockiness, but he's just so dang cool at doing so that I can't imagine that I'd ever want to see him any other way.

Photos: Steve Earle @ Gage Park on flickr
Myspace: Steve Earle
Video: City Of Immigrants on youtube
Video: The Revolution Starts Now (live on Craig Ferguson) on youtube