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Great Big Sea

I’ve been a raving fangirl for Great Big Sea from Newfoundland since I discovered them in 2000. And I post about them a LOT.

Great Big Sea

Great Big Sea at the Moore in Seattle, 3/8/2013

It has not escaped my attention, O Internets, that I never did actually finish the series of posts about our Great Canadian Adventure this past summer–and of course the highlight of same, the Great Big Sea show at Torbay in Newfoundland. Given that it is now several months after the fact posting about that would be anticlimactic. Especially given that we did just have ourselves the pleasure of Great Big Sea right here in Seattle, and oh my yes, it was good to have them back again.

Maybe not quite as awesome as seeing them on their home turf, but pretty damned awesome nonetheless!

All the usual suspects were on hand for the show, and in my particular case, this meant meeting up for dinner beforehand with friends for Mexican food at Pacific Place. My friend Geri came down from Vancouver since our show was cheaper than theirs, and I was happy to offer her crash space–in no small part since she’ll be reciprocating for me next month when I come up for Le Vent du Nord! Had we had time, we might have enacted a Cunning Plan, since I’d been hearing amusing rumors of a 20th anniversary cake brought to the B’ys in Portland–but! Even without such, it was almost universally an excellent show. (The one exception was my poor friend Jenny whose dinner disagreed with her, but thankfully she made it through the entire concert!)

Arrival at the Moore as per usual put me right in smack dab sight of the merch table. Which I promptly raided for my latest GBS shirt–this one, in fact. And I started running into quite a few folks I know from the original OKP as well as its current Facebook group incarnation, since people were on the lookout for my hat! Much love and many hugs to Angela R. and Helen and Julie and Martha and Lynda, all of whom I said hi to at various points during the show.

And without further ado–and a ONE! And a TWO get up now! ONE, TWO, THREE, JUMP AROUND!

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March 12, 2013 by
Great Big Sea, Photos

Sneak peek: pics of Great Big Sea at the Moore!

The full show writeup is on the way, but for those of you who haven’t already seen me post these pics to the social networks, behold! My first attempt at getting a full shot of pics of the B’ys on my phone!

These were taken from Stage Bob in the second row, so we were pretty darned close to the stage. I was able to only get a small number of good shots, though–most of the songs were too brightly lit from my vantage point to get clear shots, especially given my newbie skill level. I don’t have a very steady hand yet either.

But! I did get several kinda okay shots during “The Mermaid” and one or two on other songs as well. The sparkly thing hanging off of Séan’s mic stand is actually a mobile saying “GBS XX”, which someone gave to the band as a gift before the show! Plus, there are quite a few shots of the crowd immediately around and above me, during the intermission between sets!

You can see all of the pics on my annathepiper.org site!

EDITING TO ADD 1/1/2019: Edited this post to point at the pics on annathepiper.org, as I have moved them from Flickr over to my own site.

March 10, 2013 by
Great Big Sea, Music

A Great Big Pile of Great Big Sea!

Great Big Sea’s Facebook account announced this morning that the the CBC Radio 3 account on YouTube posted a whole MESS of videos from a concert this past November in Ontario.

Really. GOOD. Videos. Like this one of “River Driver”. Jesus Jumping CHRIST on a pogo stick, the bass on Murray in this. +50 to the sound engineers who worked this show, because I have never swooned so hard at the harmony mix on this song.

And there’s MORE OH MY GOD MORE. Enough that I must really hope that this is potential future DVD footage, because I would buy the HELL out of this.

It’s an entire MINI-CONCERT! Enjoy this, if you’re starting the three-day weekend here in the States!

February 15, 2013 by
Great Big Sea

Great Big Public Service Announcements!

Calling all Puget Sound area Great Big Sea fans!

My party gathering for the show at the Moore on March 8th has ONE AVAILABLE TICKET! We were a party of five, but two of us had to back out. One of their tickets has now been claimed, but we still have one left! So if you think you might want to come to this show and you don’t already have arrangements, talk to me ASAP!

Because did I mention–SECOND ROW, Stage Bob? That’s almost close enough for the inimitable Mr. Hallett to hear us singing! So if you’ve ever wondered exactly how high I can boing when The Doyle yells VERTICAL MOVEMENT, now is your chance to find out!

And while we’re on the topic–another OKPer has just relayed to me on Facebook that she’s coming in for the show and is seeking parties interested in sharing her suite at the Moore hotel. So if you’re coming to the show (whether or not you want my group’s ticket!), and you need post-show crash space, talk to me and I’ll put you in touch with that other fan.

Great Big Sea is COMING. The Good Ship Vertical Movement will in our harbor soon! See you all at the show! 😀

February 15, 2013 by
Great Big Sea

Calling all Francophone Great Big Sea fans!

My Great Big Box of XX Goodness–more on this coming in my next post–arrived today! And it should surprise ABSOLUTELY NO ONE who has been paying attention to my passionate love of Quebecois trad this year that I am all over “Le Bon Vin”, the French song included in this box set!

The notes on this thing say that this song was originally recorded for the album The Hard and the Easy, about which I am hugely delighted since it’s yet another reason for me to be super-fond of that album. It wasn’t included at the time because Alan wasn’t comfortable with his French, apparently! But the notes also say that the B’ys got coaching in their French diction from a girl from New Brunswick, and as near as I can tell, she did a good job. I mean, at least to my Anglophone ears. ;D Online Quebecer friends of mine tell me Alan’s accent sounds quite bad to them, but on the other hand, friends in New Brunswick (I’m looking at YOU, userinfobrightbeak!) tell me that from the standpoint of French spoken in Newfoundland, Alan’s accent is saner.

Me, speaking as an Anglophone fangirl with a watered-down Kentucky accent who’s deeply nervous about unleashing what I’m doing to French on any actual Francophones without direct permission, I just want to figure out the lyrics to this delightful thing so I can sing along. 😀

Because I love this song. I LOVE IT SO. It’s weird to hear French lyrics without machine-gun podorythmie to support them (which is what I have trained my ear to expect with all of this Quebec trad I’m listening to), but it does have Séan’s rapid-fire bodhran which is ALWAYS awesome! And that explosion of instruments and Bob cutting loose on the accordion and full-throated harmony a couple verses in! And Alan letting out with a roar of “OH!” tearing into the bridge! This, my children, is what a Great Big Sea song for me is goddamn ABOUT in ANY language! 😀

But unfortunately the box set does NOT include lyrics to it! So I am resorting to Mother Google to see if I can cobble together a lyrics transcription. I found this version and this version of the song, which are more or less giving me the chorus and the first couple of verses. But it’s sounding to me like Alan’s diverging hard from either of these lyrics sets.

And I call upon you, any fellow Great Big Sea fans who are better at French than I am, help me figure out these lyrics! Here’s what I’ve got–who can check me over and see what I’ve gotten wrong? And I KNOW this isn’t perfect, I was just aiming for a reasonable approximation of what it sounds like I’m hearing, and hopefully those of you with better French can sharpen this up! 😀

Le bon vin m’endort, l’amour me réveille
Le bon vin m’endort, l’amour me réveille encore!

En passant par Paris, caressant la bouteille (bis)
Un de mes amis me dit à l’oreille, bon, bon, bon

Un de mes amis me dit à l’oreille (bis)
Prends bien garde à toi, à l’on poursuivre la belle, bon, bon, bon

Poursuit qui la vous, moi, je m’ai maux que d’elle (bis)
J’ai couché trois en l’ennui avec elle bon, bon, bon

Il y a trois garçons tous trois capitaines (bis)
L’un à Bordeaux, et l’autre à La Rochelle bon, bon, bon

L’un à Bordeaux, et l’autre à La Rochelle (bis)
L’autre à Versailles, à belle la connait bon, bon, bon

November 1, 2012 by
Great Big Sea

Vertical Movement alert! GBS at the Moore, 3/8/2013!

Attention all Seattle GBS fans! If you don’t know already, the B’ys just announced the first leg of their massive 2013 tour plans, including a show in Seattle at the Moore on March 8th, 2013!

Tickets for this show go on presale TOMORROW! You no longer need an account on greatbigsea.com to buy tickets–they removed site accounts with the launch of the new site. So you can hit the site at 10am tomorrow morning to get tickets.

HOWEVER, if you want in on a block of tickets with me specifically, please let me know ASAP! Otherwise I’ll hope to see you there!

ETA: DAMMIT! The presale as per usual falls right during my morning standup at work, and since it would be impolite of me to bail on the standup just to buy tickets, I ain’t going to do that. Also, userinfosolarbird will NOT be available to get tickets on my behalf, so I can’t get a block of tickets after all. 🙁

Seattle crowd, could I get a volunteer to get me a ticket? I will happily provide money via Paypal or whatever means you request. Talk to me!

October 22, 2012 by
Great Big Sea

Alan Doyle! May 22nd! The Tractor Tavern in Seattle! BE THERE!

And speaking of things that will involve so much awesome they will violate all laws of space and time, the most belovedest of my beloved B’ys, The Doyle Himself, is about to launch his solo tour for his forthcoming album. First stop?

RIGHT HERE IN SEATTLE, BABY! At the Tractor Tavern! 😀

Be advised that tickets go on presale TOMORROW AT 10AM for greatbigsea.com members! If you’re in my usual social circles you’ve already seen me squealing about this all over the Net today, and you may have been been emailed to check on your level of interest in this show! userinfosolarbird will be buying tickets on my behalf tomorrow at 10am sharp, since it conflicts with my morning standup meeting at work. If you haven’t already checked in with me and you want in on this ticket purchase, let me know NOW!

If you’re going to be at the show anyway, please let me know as well because I’d love to look for known faces, and because showing our support for Alan in as big a group as possible will ROCK!

March 27, 2012 by