MidWinter, Show 1

Midwinter, February 15, 2003, Afternoon Show

After a nice didgeridoo session by DidgeriDrew, learning some of the finer points of didging, we headed over to the main stage area to wait for Brother to begin. We saw some good shows, including one by by Celtic Soul, which is a band everyone should check out.

After some pipers plated traditional pipe tunes as the stage was being set, Brother came on stage, and started off their set with a powerful rendition of an daorah bheag. Hamish played along to begin, backed up with wavering guitars by Rick and bass sounds from Dez, and then Angus joined in. T played the rolling drums in the background, which really added to the tribal feeling to the beginning of this show. An daorah bheag slowly faded out with a guitar screech from Rick, and pounding drums from T and a scream from Angus which signaled the beginning of what was to be a great Brother show.

An daorah bheag
Unknown
Bitch
Fragile
Believe
River
Sweet
Funny
Name
Good
Crazy

Hamish picked up his didg and Angus vocalized into Hamish's mic as Unknown grew and grew. Angus picked up Hamish's pipes and the crowd screamed as the familiar melody of Unknown was heard. Rick picked up the blue didg after T's drum break, and he and Hamish alternated back and forth, filling the hall with the sounds of dueling didges. Rick and Angus came to the front of the stage as the song neared the end and played off of each other to bring the song to a close.

Hamish came out wearing the interesting patterned denim pants, and brown "Beware my soul" tank, with the pink graphic on the front. He was also wearing the yellow knitted beanie, which we saw a lot of during this snowy weekend. Angus was wearing the green tie-dyed tank, with dark jeans. Rick had on an interestingly patterned button down shirt, with the main colors of blue, brown and beige, and the tan leather pants. Dez had on a black knitted beanie, with a grey stripe, a long sleeved white T-shirt, with a black optical illusion design on the front, and dark jeans. T was wearing a brown patterned polo type shirt, with jeans.

Rick started slowly and softly playing the beginning notes to Bitch, then T joined in tapping out the beat on his sticks. Soft simple notes gave way to harder, harsh chords from Rick and then Hamish and Angus began singing. The first break once again has the samples from the Hat Trick CD, which sound good, along with Rick's guitar licks. Somewhere through the middle the song felt a bit slower, but overall, it sounded good. In the last chorus of the song, T has a very pounding drum part, which brings the song together in the end.

Hamish then welcomed us to the show, and said that he thanked us for "the chill in the air... I do actually enjoy a midnight walk in the snow." which brought a laugh from the crowd. He said they were just going to "party hard with you guys, so, strap yourselves in and prepare for the worst."

Fragile was next, and the song sounded really good, although perhaps cautious at first. Angus started slightly softer than normal, and continued throughout the first verse, but it slowly became the rocking version we've grown to know by the end. Hamish had a large didg section in the middle of the song, and there is a different, rising chord progression at the end, but this song has evolved in a positive direction.

At this point, it appears that they had lost the drum mics, so Hamish filled the time making jokes and cracking the crowd up. He asked Angus if he had a stool, then had to ask the crowd. Angus said "Has anybody got a barstool handy? I'll require a barstool for the next song." Hamish then said, "I'd like to present... Anguish." which got an interesting look back from Angus. A chair was brought up on stage, and Hamish said "actually, that's not really cool, that's not a stool, that's a chair", to which Angus replied "I'm going to put this here for now, while I'm getting ready, in the hopes that someone will find me a much cooler stool." Angus tuned the guitar on stage and soon a much cooler stool was found with a big cheer.

Angus began Believe, with Rick also on stage. Rick played soft, yet wailing guitar sounds in the background, which created an interesting harmony to Angus alone with the guitar. This song is so enjoyable; Angus always seems to add something different to the song each time, changing the ending harmonies during this version.

After Believe, Angus picked up the bass again, and they went right into River. The beginning is so bare; with just a few notes from Rick, tapping sticks from T and several bars in, didg from Hamish. At the second verse, again you hear parts of Flow coming in, right before the song really begins to rock out. River has definitely earned a place among my favorites, and definitely brought the crowd into the show, as we chimed in for the "ay-oh, let it flow" finishing up the verse for them with the extra "ay oh, ay oh's".

Hamish said it was "nicely done, dare I say... lovely?" The next song, he said "was a new one for us, so those of you who don't think you can take a new one, should probably leave now, thank you" cracking us up. They began Sweet Time, with the crowd immediately clapping along.

Sweet Time is an interesting song, definitely with a driving beat with guitar and drums throughout. About three quarters of the way through the song, after some didgeridoo, they drop down almost nothing, with some chords from Rick and random vocalizations, and then come back into the verse "in your own sweet time." Lots of applause from the crowd when this one was done.

After Sweet, they launched immediately into Funny. The first guitar line from Rick really brings you into the song, as well as the repeated bagpipe line from Hamish. T is playing the second drum set for this song, and it really adds a different, more electronic feel to this song. The harmonies that Hamish and Angus exchange that the end of this song are fabulous and show their skill and writing and weaving melodies together. At the end, there is a recorded, very deep "yeah", which is a fitting end.

After some cello-like chords off the guitar from Rick, Angus began Name with a very soulful and emotion filled beginning to the first verse. This emotion carried through the very bare first verse, accompanied solely by samples from Dez and a few chords from Rick. When Hamish comes in with harmony, it begins to fill out the song more. I'm still not fond of the discordant sounds during the first missing "ecstasy" chorus, but the second with vocalizations and cello sounds from Rick is sounding great.

After Name, Hamish invited the crowd to join them at the signing table after the show, and said, "We'll sign anything... you can imagine. And we encourage everybody to have very creative imaginations." They launched into Good, which began with Rick's guitar sounding like a cello once again. This adds a lot of the song, as do some of the samples from Dez, which really help to round the song out. Heavy drums from T, lots of didg from Hamish and wailing bagpipes from Angus brought us through the middle of the sing to the end. No sing along this time, although I think the guys were pretty sure they were running out of time.

However, Bill, the festival organized appeared from offstage, and said "oh, no, you've got a crowd who wants to hear more..." to which we responded with screams. Hamish said, "Wow, I guess that's what an encore feels like." He then encouraged us all to stand up, and Angus added, "There's nothing like a Celtic mosh pit." Hamish surmised, "if we really fancy ourselves as the descendants of the Celts, they didn't sit down when they listened to their music, put it that way." Angus added "they also danced naked and had blue mud in their hair, but, uh, we'll save that for later..."

The groove for Crazy came on, and the crowd started dancing and blowing bubbles all over the place. Angus started the last chorus of "you can say I'm crazy" as more of a spoken word part, and let the crowd take over singing the rest of the verse, while he sang harmony over top. Rick wandered the stage playing his guitar, and ended up winging along at Hamish's mic before the bagpipes come in at the end. The crowd was bouncing and bubble blowing throughout the end of the song. Crazy was the most rocking song of the set, and was a great song to close on.

The guys had a line to sign things all the way from the front to back of the room. I wandered away for a bit, and the line didn't appear to be getting any shorter, as it appeared more and more people joined the line. The guys were gracious, taking pictures and signing anything that was thrust in front of them, for at least an hour. We wandered off a bit in the afternoon, to charge batteries and prepare for the evening show. No snow yet....

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