December 18 was the final concert that Marianas Trench is going to do until their new album comes out. The last Masterpiece Theatre show! Luckily, I was able to go (due to a very nice dad who got presale tickets and the show being in Vancouver).
The opening band, Jakalope, were okay. Not my favorite, but then, I don’t like female voices very much (it’s a weird thing I have) so I’m a bit biased. I just don’t like Jakalope much, but I’m sure that for their fans, the performance was amazing.
Marianas Trench, on the other hand, are one of my very favorite bands, and even though I’d seen them three times already, the December 18 show was still new and exciting. Of course, my favorite Trench song (Acadia) was the third song played, which made me VERY happy and ensured that my voice would be ruined from screaming the words. The band did an amazing performance, and one of the highlights of the show was during Sing Sing, which, at one point, went something like this… Josh Ramsay: “I- I- I- I- I- I’m not sleeping. You say-OH JESUS CHRIST!” (Someone had thrown a thong at him and it startled him. He continued the song, but during a break in the vocals he asked if the thong was used and hung it on Mike Ayley’s mic stand.) A crowd favorite was, no surprise, Shake Tramp, and almost every fan in the theatre did the signature hand actions to the chorus. This time, at least, everyone knew the last line to the chorus (the first time I saw Trench in concert, no one knew). Another highlight of the show was witnessing the band being presented with the plaque for Masterpiece Theatre going platinum. The Trench boys didn’t know that 604 Records was going to present the plaque, so it was a surprise for everyone.
The encore was incredible. Ramsay acoustically performed his contribution song from the 604 Records Christmas album (Baby Please Come Home) and despite his claim of not knowing the words very well, he did an awesome job of singing the song. Good To You was the next song, again, acoustically, and featuring Jessica Lee, who guest-starred in the music video. Finally, Ramsay performed Lover Dearest, much to the delight of the crowd (Lover Dearest is not played often due to it being difficult to sing), and the rest of the band finally came back on stage. The concert ended (no surprise) with Cross My Heart, and the audience departed the show feeling riled up once more.
One drawback of the show was that the merch table sold out of almost everything before the show started. My friend and I got to the table after Jakalope played, and there were only two shirt designs (one of which had only one shirt left) and a few postcards left. I bought a shirt, but my friend beat me to the last postcard. Ah, well. Life.
