Photographs by Lee-Ann Richer.
London’s Budweiser Gardens was the host to Colorado based band OneRepublic on Wednesday April 22nd. This was the band’s fourth of their 10 Canadian tour dates before heading off to Asia and Europe. Their “Native Tour” is their third headlining concert tour promoting their March 2013 album “Native”. You better have stamina to be in this band as their tour started April 2, 2013 and will end June 15, 2015.
Here is a bit of trivia, what do these songs all have in common?
Beyoncé – “Halo”
Ellie Goulding – “Burn”
Jordin Sparks – “Battlefield”
Sean Paul – “Got 2 Luv U”
Leona Lewis – “Bleeding Love”
Kelly Clarkson – “Already Gone”
Demi Lovato – “Neon Lights”
Maroon 5 – “Love Somebody”
Adele ‘ “Rumour Has It”
Beyoncé – “XO”
… give up? All these songs were written by OneRepublic front man Ryan Tedder.
Ok, on with the evening and more about Ryan Tedder later.
OneRepublic’s show started with their tune “Light It Up” from behind a large white curtain, with the band a silhouette. Lights from different angles went on and off, making the band members seem to jump from spot to spot. Where you would see drums one second, there would be a guitarist the next second. When the screen dropped the intensity turned up. There were spotlights pointed at the guitars and they shone the same way a disco ball would with rays of lights. It was a very slick effect.
I was standing at the soundboard while my wife (photographer for Live in Limbo) was photographing the first three songs. It was interesting hearing commands being told to the light and sound crew. You would hear “ok 30 seconds till … “. I felt like I knew what was going to happen, before it happened!
The next song was “Secrets” (second single from the band’s studio album “Waking Up”) and Ryan Tedder and cello/bassist Brent Kutzle were front and centre. This song was like a marriage between a contemporary Irish flavoured pop tune and a crazy cellist wailing away in the background.
After a brief video introduction of a children’s choir the band played their next hit “All The Right Moves” with Tedder starting on piano and then focusing on vocals while the band took over. Singing since the age of seven and singing two hours every day till the age of eighteen, has really paid off. This guy can sing! He has amazing mic control and seems like he can sing at any range ALL NIGHT.
Tedder announced he was a child, whose parents divorced. He said he was lucky enough to have a cool step dad. They made a boyhood trip to London, Ontario and he said it was a hell of a lot warmer back then! I thought no kidding we just drove through a snowstorm to get to the concert.
Tedder said that parts of the next song were recorded in Canada and asked the audience for help singing in this song. He said they recorded some bad audiences and some not so good audiences and mixed them together to help give the song, “Something I Need”, an Irish feeling. During the song Tedder ran out and grabbed a video camera and while singing and interacting with the crowd he projected their images onto the projection screens behind the band.
The arena was darkened except for some old video clips of the Three Stooges accompanied by Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You”. When the lights came up you could see that the small extended stage at the end of the cat walk was outfitted with a piano for Tedder to play. Later he was joined by Kutzle on cello for their hit “Apologize” which was mixed with the Sam Smith cover “Stay With Me”.
As the band was joining them on the cozy extended stage Tedder looked around at the audience and said, “not bad for a weeknight, eh?” He followed up by saying, “what else would you be doing? Watching Netflix?” The crowd responded with laughter. By this time the band was ready and Kutzle traded his cello for his bass guitar. The next song they played was George Ezra’s “Budapest”. Tedder said he wished he had written the song – that’s pretty good kudos for the 21 year old British singer-songwriter.
The next song, “Preacher”, Tedder wrote about his grandfather. He wrote it when his grandfather was 87 years old; however, he also said he is a bad ass and will probably live to be 100!
The next song was “Good Life”. There was a video montage playing similar to the one that was at the opening of the show. Some images were of Western University and a London Labatt’s store. They received the biggest response of cheering and clapping.
The lights went down and everyone, except Zach Filkins, disappeared behind a white sheet. There was a single light shone on Filkins. He dazzled everyone showing his talents from studying classical guitar in Barcelona Spain, in his “Spanish Guitar Medley”. His use of the classical guitar and tape loops was wonderful. He would tap on the guitar and then loop the sound, and while that was playing, he then added several more “loop” layers made up of other taps, thumps and smacks on the guitar. After about five layers of sound, he added the layers of guitar loops. It was like listening to a band all in one guy.
This was a great intro for when the sheet dropped and the band was in their stage positions, ready to play their biggest hit “Counting Stars”. Accompanying the song was a video of moving origami figures.
Tedder shot out into the audience and flew up to the “cheap seats” as they are called and told some of the ladies they were even more beautiful close up. He was always touching hands with the crowd and talking directly to them. Even when he wasn’t talking he was communicating with hand gestures or facial expressions. He was completely engaged with the audience and maintained a strong connection with them, all night long.
If you weren’t impressed enough by Tedder’s strong vocals and how he effortlessly nailed the high notes, then the next song “Can’t Stop” would show you how good he is.
The show was very well put together. You could tell these road dogs have the experience of a group that has been on many stages. The production was superb. The band consisting of Zach Filkins/lead & acoustic guitar & backing vocals, Brent Kutzle/cello & bass & backing vocals, Drew Brown on rhythm guitar & backing vocals, Eddie Fisher/drums, Brian Willett/synthesizer and last but not least Ryan Tedder/lead vocals & piano.
The evening closed its set with “Feel Again” and I Lived”. Ryan thanked their London fans saying, “London this is no BS, this has been an incredible first experience”, and then he threw his guitar “McCartney style” about 15 feet in the air to the awaiting roadie. I am sure more than a few people were thinking, “is he going to catch it?”
The band picked the perfect song to reappear for their encore set. The audience went crazy to the thundering sound of Fisher’s bass drum with a Jurassic Park thud that signaled the start to “Love Runs Out”.
This was another enjoyable evening! Thank you OneRepublic! You rock! Speaking of “rocking”, we’d like to thank Bethany at Budweiser Gardens. Thanks for everything!
