four thousand star rating.

Remember the first concert you ever went to? You were probably all giddy inside and bubbly and saying anything that came to your mind a mile a minute. You probably screamed so loud when the opening act came on that you almost fainted, then doubled that scream when the actual act came on stage. Well, last night I had the luxury of attending the City and Colour concert at Massey Hall downtown Toronto. Let me tell you how amazing this concert was.

The show opened with a random band from Montreal (I believe, don't quote me) who's lead singer was a little odd but the guitar and two of the songs they played were sort of cute. After the opening act got off the stage the lights came on, giving my friend and I enough time to escape to the bathroom--we went to dinner before hand at Salad King on Yonge just in front of Ryerson University and probably drank 15 glasses of water each. Then within probably 15 minutes a man named Harriss took the stage with his acoustic guitar and played the instrumental of Bohemian Rhapsody as the crowd sang the entire song without even being asked. At this moment, my friends and I knew we would be singing every song that Dallas Green performed at the top of our lungs with no worry at all because, hey, who doesn't love singing in a concert hall?

When Dallas took the stage there were a million screams, thousands of "I love yous," hundreds of hand claps, and one voice from the stage that started to sing the hit, "Waiting" off of "Bring Me Your Love" (the album). Every song Dallas sang, whether new, old, or a cappella I had chills running up and down my spine. It's safe to say that Dallas Green is even better live than he his on a recording. He engaged the crowd so well, laughed, answered any calls from the audience (including a personal one that started when Dallas began tuning his guitar where the audience member called "Dallas?" and he stopped tuning and answered, "Yes?"), and sang so beautifully that I couldn't hold back any of my vocal chords from singing along. 

A lot of the songs brought back old emotional memories as well making me clench my hand over my heart. At the end of the show, he sang "Coming Home" off of his album "Sometimes" as his encore. I absolutely love that song so much and freaked out when I heard the opening chords. It was so upsetting to see Dallas walk of the stage and I bet that every person in the hall was thinking "Oh no, please come back." I even overhead someone behind me saying, "I'm at a loss for words right now," when Dallas started to play "Coming Home."

It was such a good night and I really can't wait until the next time he performs in Toronto. What is even more exciting is that apparently he is going to be releasing another album sometime this year called "Falling." 

If you can't tell, I had such a great evening last night and when I got home I couldn't sleep because I just had to listen to my City & Colour playlist. The feeling of good friends, loving music, lyrics, and atmosphere on top of a fantastically superb performance is worth any pretty penny.

The best has to be when a song means something to you or reminds you of something important, or unimportant for that matter, and is unexpectedly played live. It's possibly the greatest feeling. I couldn't even hold back my vocals...not to mention that they aren't the greatest. 

So to conclude this longish blog about Dallas Green and his beautiful voice and cute cardigan sweater, I have to say that if you haven't heard Dallas sing, I suggest you have a listen.

This is a major P.S. about the T-shirt I bought last night for $25 (that's pretty good for a concert and probably the only T I didn't mind spending 30 bucks on). It's white, has random drawings all over it that are really cool actually, and is Fruit of the Loom. Yeah, I could have made the T myself but I figured I should treat myself to a concert shirt.