Rain better suited to October than August threatened to complicate Bruce Cockburn’s outdoor concert before it even began Wednesday.
But thanks to that old showbiz motto, the Butchart Gardens show — which had no choice but to go on — did so in spite of the grey clouds overhead, beating them back every step of the way.
To use a bit of Cockburn-speak, nothing worth having comes without a fight, so this gig kicked at the darkness until it bled daylight.
Many in the audience appeared to care little about the spittle. Their reward was a spectacular outdoor show that not only looked but also sounded great, from Cockburn’s opening number, Grim Travellers, to his final encore 90 minutes later.
Credit is due to the environment that the Ontario native, now based in San Francisco, was performing in on this night.
The beds of flowers added to the visage, no doubt.
But even those couldn’t compete with the sounds emanating from the small amphitheatre, nestled among towering trees, that sent his songs outward over a grassy knoll to an audience of about 3,000 fans.
The concert — a special event added to the nightly summer programming at the national historic site — was a rare treat for fans. It put a premium on intimacy (one longtime fan even presented Cockburn with flowers at the end of Give It).
Cockburn displayed a sly sense of humour. When one fan yelled “Bruce Almighty!” the singer offered a sarcastic retort: “That movie was terrible.”
There was a sense of occasion, indeed.
Cockburn didn’t play it safe — the four-letter word in Call it Democracy stayed — but Cockburn, 68, joked often with the diehard fans up front.
“I can’t tell you how gratifying it is to hear you yell out all those song titles,” he said, drawing more cheers. “But I can’t think of the one we are going to play.”
He played plenty, but also let his all-star violinist, Jenny Scheinman, sing lead on one of her own songs during his set.
Scheinman and percussionist Gary Craig (the other member of the duo that backed Cockburn) opened the night with 30 minutes of fine folk, but it was hard to beat the master on Wednesday.
The rain returned during Wondering Where the Lions Are, his 1979 hit, but Cockburn’s finger-picking was so strong at this point it barely registered. He continued his fretboard frenzy with a reverb-heavy Stolen Land, which resonated across the 55-acre site with a political punch.
Some rain-weary fans at the rear were making their exit well before the show was over, but that wasn’t for lack of effort on the part of Cockburn and his bandmates.
Or for lack of talent.
This was one for the books.