Christine Fellows - November 30, 2007

I can't think of a better way to wave goodbye to a cold, stormy, and tumultuous November than a great show at Amigo's with great people and Christine Fellows! I was feeling particularly good after a couple glasses of red wine. So when I got to have a chat with CF herself in the washroom, I talked to her about the crazy cold temperatures, how the dry air just messes with our skin, and how the guys travelling with her were from the east and they were whining about the weather. We laughed together, knowingly.

Before Ms. Fellows took the stage, Baby Eagle played a few tunes with Shotgun Jimmy. Baby Eagle is a solo project for Steven Lambke from the Toronto-based, superduper rock group The Constantines. His song-writing is great and Shotgun Jimmy was a great accompanist, but the whole Bob Dylan singing style has been a little over-done lately. So I wasn't as into that. Not that he didn't do it well, I just don't think I would go out of my way to hear it.

When Christine took the stage, someone set up this spotlight in front of the stage and out of nowhere there was an interpretive dancer in front of the stage where people would have otherwise been standing. At first I found her to be amusingly distracting and wondered what was going on. I've seen some pretty crazy things at Amigo's, but I've never seen anybody willingly roll around the dirty, beer-spilled floor in front of the stage (I sat on it once and I'll never do that again). After a while, I really got into the music through her dance and she did such a good job of complementing the music. Christine Fellows mentioned that Susie Burpee was the name of the contemporary dancer that was dancing on "the dirty white carpet" on the stage at Amigo's.

The fun didn't stop there, though. Shotgun Jimmy and Christine sang us a special Christmas cover song that will definitely not be heard in the shopping malls this holiday season called Me and Little Andy by Dolly Parton. The chorus of the lyrics go like this:
Ain't ya got no gingerbread
Ain't ya got no candy
Ain't ya got an extra bed for me and little Andy
Patty cake and bakersman
My mommy ran away again
And we was all alone and didn't know what else to do
I wonder if you'll let us stay with you
It was the oddest thing I've ever seen.

This show went down as the second oddest show I've seen this year (the first being the Julie Doiron show where Calvin Johnson played ridiculously long, awkward songs for an uncomfortably long time on a Monday night and part of the audience actually left). But all-in-all, the charm of the musicians and artist made the show so wonderful and a pleasure to see. Now if only we could get the crowd to cooperate and understand how rude it is to yell while there is a quiet show going on.

Crystal's rating: 7.5/10
Special thanks to Franny for pointing out my unintentional changing of my rating scale for the Stars review... I have changed it to be out of 10. :o)