When I bought a ticket to go see Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, I didn't know much about the band other than it was Sean Lennon and his girlfriend's,Charlotte Kemp Muhl, band.
I didn't hesitate much when i heard the band was coming to Vancouver because i wanted to see the son of John Lennon perform which to me was 'Once in a lifetime' opportunity.
I listened to a few songs of his new album that came out 2 weeks before the show to know what was coming my way and be somewhat more interested during the show. I might have listened to the album once more the day before the show and I felt it was a good album that sounded a little bit like a Beatles' album of the Sgt. Pepper's era.
I heard an interview with Sean a week after the show where he said it wasn't an album that was like Sgt Pepper's like everybody seems to say, because they used more modern instruments and techniques than the Beatles at the time and it could be regarded as a post-modernistic twist of psychedelic music. Nonetheless, it still sounds somewhat Beatles-esque songs to me.
The show was set at the 1 year old Imperial theatre which is a small venue in Gastown. It was my first time in this theatre and I thought it was a nice place, strangely decorated with old Chinese soldiers statues and red drapes which seemed like they wanted the place to look fancy in some ways. During the show, Sean and Charlotte talked a lot about those replica of well known statues which seemed inappropriate and intriguing anyways. So the theatre seemed intimate enough and I was able to get to the front really easily which was good to me at first, but ended up making the beginning of the music experience really limited.
I was saying before that the songs have a Sgt. Peppers' album tone, but Sean also wears a lot what his father was wearing and also looks a lot like him...
During the first 3 songs i couldn't hear Sean or Charlotte sing at all and could barely hear them when they were talking after the songs, I didn't understand why the sound engineer let it continue like this without fixing the microphones until I heard someone say that the speakers above us were the ones shooting out the vocals...I walked back during the rest of the show and was finally able to hear them sing.
Finally, the show was going to be better and I would be able to truly appreciate Sean's good voice and remarks between songs. The only issue was that I would be far from them starting at this moment, but it was still worth it. The songs played live was really giving them a new life and a really great way to appreciate them better than the album's version...maybe it was Sean's and Charlotte's magic that made these songs shine in their presence, but it was a great show.
Before the show I thought, without knowing is personality at all, that Sean would probably be playing his songs, drink, don't talk much with the audience, have a crazy big ego and just be cold because that's what a lot of "famous" or son of X person are expected to be from my experience or rumors and gossips. Fortunately, to my great surprise, Sean seems to be the nicest, without big ego, type of guy.
Sean talked between every song about the venue, to and about the audience, about the songs they were going to play, about his relationship with Charlotte and about his experience with the band/previous albums and about his parents.Charlotte and Sean were also going back and forth talking about their relationship, making fun of each other, letting us into their chemistry and learning how they actually work really well together. I really appreciated to see all of that transpire in their performance. I felt like a was their friends, that we were all invited into their living room and having a good time exchanging about our problems and pleasures.
Unfortunately, like I've said in the past, most crowds I see in concerts in Vancouver, unlike in Montreal for example, are somewhat hard to please or it seems hard to get some demonstration of happiness and letting go from concert goers which probably appreciate what they see and hear, but also seem to "want" to be entertain and look like saying "come on entertain me I paid for it". This attitude was highlighted with a good sense of humor from Sean once during the show comparing the crowd to some cool New York scene that he knows well.
Near the end of the show, Sean announced that he was going to meet anyone interested in the back of the theatre to sign some stuff...it was a huge surprise to me and probably most people there...no one ever does that except first acts who want to find new fans to add to their small follower group. This was amazing...I might meet Sean Lennon and talk to him after the show...which obviously I decided to do...WOW!
Charlotte and Sean announced that their encore performance was going to be added to the main show instead of just leaving the stage and "pretending not to come back for a while", they would rather continue the party and end the show after the next 3 songs without compromising their energy on stage. At the end of the second encore song I went in front to get the setlist from the stage. At first, I didn't get the setlist I sought to get, but a minute later I saw their drummer on the floor behind me and I asked him for a copy which he immediately fetched on stage for me...what a great band :)
I went to see and talk with Sean at the merch table like a lot of people did. I got a vinyl and he signed it with my copy of the setlist. He was super friendly with everyone and talked a lot with people and he was impressed by some of the things people brought to get signed, like photos of him with his family when he was younger and such...
Great show and I would totally recommend to go see them live!!
