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Review: Blue Rodeo delivers hits, fresh, unrecorded songs

REVIEW Blue Rodeo with Terra Lightfoot When: Thursday Where: Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre Rating: 4 (out of 5) — When it comes to live performance, loose doesn’t necessarily mean sloppy. Keith Richards — he's loose.
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Singer-guitarist Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo.

REVIEW

Blue Rodeo with Terra Lightfoot

When: Thursday

Where: Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre

Rating: 4 (out of 5)

When it comes to live performance, loose doesn’t necessarily mean sloppy. Keith Richards — he's loose. David Lee Roth, in his current state — he’s sloppy. There is a difference.

Blue Rodeo, consummate professionals, have put their stamp on a sound that combines equal amounts of opportunity and adventure. They leave the door open for improvisation, but never stray far enough from the core of their country-rock to leave fans adrift. They are like Wilco with fewer experimental tendencies or My Morning Jacket without pot.

In some ways, Blue Rodeo simply is Blue Rodeo. The gang of Toronto legends, now seven members deep, knows its way around a concert, as evidenced by its appearance Thursday at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, attended by 2,557 fans. The pacing was largely perfect, and while the final third of the band’s set featured a non-stop abundance of Can-rock classics, it came out of the gates on a roll.

The 12-time Juno Award winners opened with Trust Yourself, a time-worn classic that benefited from the guitar work of guitarist Colin Cripps and singer-guitarist Jim Cuddy, who traded separate-sounding solos.

The band’s other singer-guitarist, Greg Keelor, was pensive but powerful on Side of the Road, before turning the microphone back over to Cuddy for the plaintive Rain Down On Me, which was fodder for another searing solo from Cripps, the former Junkhouse guitarist. He was on fire all night.

Love and Understanding gave Cuddy and Keelor, friends for more than 40 years, the chance to synchronize like few in Canadian history. The came together on the forgotten gem (from 1989’s Casino) to produce a pitch-perfect pairing. And just like that, four songs in, the band had shown much of its hand.

For a younger band, that would have been a problem. But in this case, Blue Rodeo was only getting started.

The group played a handful of songs not yet recorded, which was a drawback, if only because of their relative anonymity. And a few of the deeper cuts from their catalogue, such as 2000’s The Seeker, were otherwise forgettable.

That is to be expected from a band that doesn’t go in the same direction for every tour. Blue Rodeo is too seasoned to stay down for long, however, and when the band dug into the meat of its set, with hits like Til I Am Myself Again, Try, and Diamond Mine, resistance was futile.

The band’s final show before a two-week break featured opening act Terra Lightfoot, an Ontario singer-songwriter (Waterdown-bred, Hamilton-based) whose best attribute is her big voice.

Her delivery definitely had some punch, and Lightfoot received some appreciative rounds of applause for songs from her second album, Every Time My Mind Runs Wild. She made good use of everything at her disposal, including top-tier sound and lights. She wasn’t alone on stage, by any means — drummer Joel Haynes was a standout — but she was the star.

That was enough to win the approval of Blue Rodeo’s open-minded audience. Point scored for Lightfoot.

Blue Rodeo patterned their set to touch on all facets of their career, and though they spent equal time on big records (Five Days in July) and new songs (four of which were played), you can’t help but leave a Blue Rodeo concert on a high. Even after all these years.

mdevlin@timescolonist.com

Setlist

1. Trust Yourself

2. Side of the Road

3. Rain Down On Me

4. Love and Understanding

5. Superstar (new song)

6. The Seeker

7. Now and Forever

8. Rabbit's Foot (new song)

9. 5 Days in May

10. Dark Angel

11. Candice

12. Disappear

13. Thousand Arms (new song)

14. The Flame (new song)

15. One Light Left in Heaven (acoustic)

16. What Am I Doing Here (acoustic)

17. Bad Timing (acoustic)

18. Til I Am Myself Again

19. Rose-Coloured Glasses

20. Try

21. Diamond Mine

Encore

22. 'Til I Gain Control Again

23. Hasn't Hit Me Yet

24. Lost Together