“Marry me!”, “I love you!”, “You are awesome!” Were just a few of the things that were screamed out at the Theory Of A Deadman show at the St. Catharines Performing Arts Centre tonight. The fans in the audience were having a hard time staying in their seats as Theory Of A Deadman played many of their hits over the past 15 years. This was an acoustic performance, and, in a theatre setting, which made it difficult for the die hard rock fans to contain themselves. Many times over the evening the audience got up out of their seats and danced in the aisles as Theory belted out “Bad Girlfriend” and “Low Life” I even laughed at a few girls just in front of the soundboard position, beer cans in the air, “singing” their own versions of Theory’s songs.
Seeing Theory Of A Deadman in a stripped down session was a great experience and quite different from what I normally get to see from them. All seated on the stage, each with a table covered with a black cloth that had a candelabra on it and a red solo cup, nothing else. I am quite happy to say I loved hearing the acoustic versions of their songs and to my surprise they added a keyboard player to the foursome. Now that being said the house was still rocking and and the fans had no problem letting Theory know how much they were loved.
This was the first time I was able to actually listen to what Tyler had to say in between songs and I have to say he is quite witty. Numerous times between songs he would tell us little “stories” one in which had to do with being lost in Canada and the tour bus driver had quite a scare when someone knocked on the door to the bus. The driver thought they were being robbed but it ended up being helpful Canadians to see if they needed directions. The theatre burst into cheers after this story, nothing quite like national pride in your country especially when it has to do with Canadians being so nice. Great way to win over an audience Tyler, not like you needed any help tonight, they all loved you from the get go. One young lady decided this was a great time to approach the stage to have a one on one conversation with the band and actually got up on stage. The band instead of getting angry or antsy laughed and Tyler shook her hand and humoured her for a moment. I did find it funny that no one rushed the stage to get her off, security nonchalantly walked over to her and politely asked her to remove herself which she did. Only in Canada!
Tyler took the spotlight for just a moment and got the crowd into the Christmas spirit by singing a touching version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. You can find their version of this song on Spotify but there is nothing quite like hearing it live. My favourite song of the night by far was “Angel” it is just one of those songs that get stuck in your head and I found myself whistling it on the way back to my car. If you haven’t had a chance to see a show at the St. Catharines Performing Art Centre the acoustics are top notch there and I highly recommend you go see a show there. Unfortunately though you have missed the best show of the 2016 season in my books and I can’t wait for Theory Of A Deadman to come back to town.
Once again thanks to the crew because without them there is no show!
