Saturday, August 28, 2010

The Specials
Sound Academy
August 27-28, 2010


So nice you got to see it twice.
Or so rare you gotta do a pair.

The Specials cancelled back in April and I caught a major break.
My tickets were in hand and plans were in place to see that springtime outing but I was forced to modify my travel dates for New Orleans which caused me to be out of the country on April 19.

Then I traded in a bit of my banked-Karma and one of the band members got sick.

Sorry 'bout that.

To make it up to us they booked an extra "thank you" show, and being forever grateful, I figured it's a nice weekend, let's play two.

They are coming off a very busy summer of festivals in Europe...14 or more and these two final dates in Toronto look to be the 'wind-down' for their 30th Anniversary tour which started with sell-out shows in England last fall.

Never have I seen so many people, packed so tightly, dancing up a storm, without any undo aggressive behaviour. It was like 'family friendly skank' nite. Unfortunately the cutie in front of me decided to profer an unrequested lap dance on me...unfortunate because she was whining and grinding (er, wrong band) against my recording rig and she flipped the gain from +10 to +30 causing me to lose 7 songs, Friday Night/Saturday Morning among them. Oh, well, there's another date.



And that date was even better, if it could be. Second night we get the same enthusiasm, friendly, fun-loving crowd and another sweat-fest. A little less crowded tonight, which was nice.

The encore sees an extra song, the rare Guns of Navarone. The only difference from the previous night.

The Specials
Sound Academy
Toronto ON
08-28-2010

Track 01 Intro
Track 02 Do the Dog
Track 03 (Dawning of A) New Era
Track 04 Gangster
Track 05 It's Up To You
Track 06 Monkey Man
Track 07 Rat Race
Track 08 Poor Little Rich Girl
Track 09 Blank Expression
Track 10 Doesn't Make it Alright
Track 11 Stupid Marriage
Track 12 Concrete Jungle
Track 13 Friday Night, Saturday Morning
Track 14 Stereotypes (Part 1 &2)
Track 15 Man at C & A

Disc 2
Track 01 Message To You Rudy
Track 02 Do Nothing
Track 03 Little Bitch
Track 04 Nite Club
Track 05 Too Much Too Young
Track 06 Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)
Track 07 encore break
Track 08 Ghost Town
Track 09 second encore break
Track 10 Guns of Navarone
Track 11 You're Wondering Now