KD Lang last night

On one of our very rare excursions into the big city, we went & saw KD Lang last night. 12 year old staying at a friend's, the dog walked early & swiftly... we were going to cable car into town & have a leisurely dinner, but opted instead to take our time getting ready, have a few wines, dial in Red Tomatoes pizzas, and stroll down to the Fowler Centre on such a lovely evening. Turns out, with 10 minutes to go there was a hurried call to a taxi company to get us there on time.

Ran into a guy I know outside, he seemed quite disappointed that the audience streaming in was mixed gender (stereotypes eh?), middle class, middle aged, middle of the road & affluent looking. Middle. Mostly, anyway. Anyhow, I don't really think Lang's ever been considered edgy or anything, she started in country music for goodness sake. In fact, we ended up sitting next to some people we know & before the show started, we discussed: our dogs; our children; house prices in our respective suburbs... talk about hip!

BTW: the venue gouges you for a glass of wine - $7.50.

The set started with a few numbers from the Wgtn Sinfonia, Tchaikofsky, Greig, Eleanor Rigby - all the classics in other words.

15 minutes into the show there was a break, to allow the venue to gouge us a bit more & then on came the lady herself.

Man, what a voice. She belted out some old favourites, a few numbers from her new album (covers of songs written by fellow Canadians - Hymns of the 49th Parallel I think it's called), followed by a few more of her hits, some Patsy Cline... and then two encores of one song each. You knew it was actually over when the Sinfonia started packing up. It was a giveaway.

She made some nice banter with the audience, some of whom had obviously seen her last time she was here:

"Wellington! It's been a long time. Too long"
"You split your pants last time you were here" someone yelled.
"Did I? Well that's why I wore a skirt tonight, I don't like to repeat myself."

We agreed that she STILL looks like a young Robert de Niro. Years ago I saw an obscure film called Salmonberries. Set in Alaska, and starring a very young Miss Lang. She also provided the haunting soundtrack. It's worth a look, and I defy you not to think to yourself "By golly, she looks like Robert de Niro."