It was back to the Atlantic Canada House again tonight, this time the the Arts Club Theatre (Granville Island) section, to take in a number of really talented artists from Canada’s north-east as part of the “New Brunswick on Deck” celebration.
My friend Cass luckily was ahead of me in the 2 hour plus line and was able to secure a couple of great seats in the packed theatre for us before the doors were closed and I’d say a hundred or more unlucky people were told “bad luck, we’re at capacity”. The Atlantic Canada House shows are quickly proving to be the hottest tickets in town at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, so I’m pretty stoked that I actually made it in.
Being a New Brunswick showcase of musical talent, there was naturally a strong French flavour, representing the proud Acadian history of the region. To be honest, I thought I was attending the evening simply to see the hugely talented “Matt Anderson” and maybe one or two other supporting acts. I didn’t realise that I would be witnessing a full, integrated show covering a vast number of styles from opera to hip hop and everything in between, performed by what seemed to be a pretty close-knit community of New Brunswick’s finest musical talent including:
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Like I mentioned earlier, Matt Anderson, the big lad with a powerful, soulful voice, was who I was most interested in, and he sure didn’t disappoint delivering a flawless performance of his moving hit, “So Gone Now”. He proved, to me at least, that his recent first place in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee wasn’t a fluke. After all, he did beat out 80 of the world’s top blues, soul and rock ‘n’ roll artists in taking out the prize.
The other act of note for the night was definitely the unmistakable Acadian sounds of “Ode a l’Acadie”. From what I can gather, this talented troupe of seven formed in 2004 as part of the 400th Birthday celebrations of the Acadian Nation. What was originally a 25-date tour became an international journey taking in 421 performances in Canada, the US, Europe and Africa over the past 6 years.
The entire evening was a lot of fun and it’s always great to watch artists who genuinely appear to love what they are doing and show a love for their origins. I’m not too sure what concerts are left scheduled for the Canada Atlantic House, but if there are any still to come, I can definitely recommend you get along and check out some amazing Canadian talent!
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