Seeing Canadian songwriting legend Fred Eaglesmith, Monday, March 7— the first of two sold out shows at the Geomatic Attic— made up for a really bad week.
Fred Eaglesmith commands respect and silence and demands attention during his shows.
He’s been performing for many years and has a respectable catalogue of story songs which command the audience to listen to them and who love them on their own merits.
While I’ve seen him tell people off for talking during his shows, the first of two sold out shows at the Geomatic Attic, March 7 was a little different as I’ve never seen him so rattled about a loud fan in the front row.
He started his show with an upbeat version of “Dynamite and Whiskey ” from his latest CD, “Cha Cha Cha.”
Which is about when the exuberant fan started to interrupt. Eaglesmith joked with her at first, played a couple more songs including “Indian Motorcycle,” and a couple others I didn’t know, then tried to ignore her, made fun of her, then thanked Geomatic Attic owner Mike Spencer for helping him get his truck repaired then told the speaker that she was getting on his nerves, eventually getting fed up with her by the middle of the second set and just telling her to “shut up.”
Despite the interruption, he kept his vis comica, cracking off colour, hilariously politically incorrect jokes, spoke about his favourite charity “Feed The Children,” and encouraged people to support a child, then said the crowd could participate during the “Pentecostal preacher ” part of the show.
He played a variety of my favourites in the first set including “Alcohol And Pills,” and ended the set with “Freight Train” which he mentioned had been recorded by country star Allan Jackson.
The second set, “the Pentecostal Preacher” part of the show began with “Careless” off the new CD “Cha Cha Cha” but focused on his 2008 gospel tinged CD “ Tinderbox,” including some of the highlights like “ Pray Now,” his snake handler song “Get on Your Knees,” and “Fancy God,” but made my night by including my favourite Fred Eaglesmith song, “Indiana Road.”
He mentioned he is best known for his train and “gear” songs, but didn’t include many of them. Notably absent was the usual show stopper “49 Tonnes.”
His band was crack as always, with Kori Heppner keeping time on the drums adding superb back up vocals and Matty Simpson playing everything from banjo and guitar to quite a lot of organ and keyboards.
New bassist Justine Fischer, who was last in Lethbridge with the Joey Only Outlaw band, beamed ear to ear and kept the groove going like she’d been with the band forever through a solid and entertaining set.
