Sterling Show

Amazing. Simply amazing.

I've been sitting here for a while trying to come up with ways to describe this show. It's been tough. I've seen many Brother shows in the last 6 years, and this show just took my breath away. I hope you all enjoy this review, I'm not sure how complete or accurate it is, because wow, this show was amazing. So, let's start at the beginning. We arrived to the Sterling very early, cause we had to drop someone off, and just took a nice seat out on the steps. Within minutes, several other fans came along. Pretty soon, we had a nice little contingent of Brother fans gathered outside telling stores. C, her boyfriend J and I killed time by sorting music. She's teaching music in a nearby school district, and the marching band music was in terrible order. We spread it out on the sidewalk and put it in correct score order. Before long, Rick wandered outside and stopped to talk with everyone. He stopped by where we were, and looked down at us quizzically as we were ordering the "Peter Gunn Theme". He said "separating parts?" He smiled at us, when we agreed and walked on.

After we were done that, we still had about an hour to kill. Teri came out and talked with everyone for a while and we could hear the muted sounds of the boys warming up. We told Brother stories, heard great ones from Summerfest (thanks Celtgirl and our other Milwaukee visitors! The eyebrows! The eyebrows!), and played with bubbles. Every now and then, someone would look in the window where they were, and we got silly reports of Roel lying on a pool table and just general funny stuff happening on the inside. C had brought her super cool bubble blower from work with her, so we all started blowing bubbles. Coincidentally, it was about the same time that Brother started playing Crazy inside. We stood and sat on the sidewalk, softly singing along, and blowing tons of bubbles. Apparently Teri was setting up the merchandise (pool) table right inside of the window, and she saw the bubbles floating by, which made her laugh, I hear. Mary came out to photograph us, and we filled the sky with bubbles as the boys finished the song.

The doors opened promptly at 8, and we all filed in. The "Music Hall" was smaller than we thought it would be, and as we came in, the guys were just milling around. Angus was alone on darkened stage with a guitar, sitting on a stool, and softly singing Believe Again. Fabulous. I was hoping to hear that song, and was so pleased I had caught it. Little did I know that I'd be hearing it again later - yay! So, again, we had 2 hours to kill. We spent the time "saving spaces", running back and forth to the bar and bathroom, mainly laughing and getting excited for the show. We made new friends, looked at pictures from earlier in the day, and discussed cameras, batteries and flashes. And of course, Brother.

Around 10 there started to be some motion in the backstage area, and the boys appeared! Roel was wearing the Vegas pants again, which were made of brocade. We got a close look (and feel!) of the pants, beautiful blue with gold, and they are just the coolest. He was wearing a black tank on top. Rick was wearing pants that we believe to be velour, with a brown V-neck T-shirt. Angus was in all black, black tank and black leather pants. Hamish was wearing blue pants, kind of a patterned denim, and another amazing tank. It was white with thin red stripes on the front, and had an image of, I believe, a peacock, in a large circle on the front. The back was black, with a shiny red and silver image of a woman in a dress, and while patterned flowers at the top. There's no way I'm doing this justice, so look at the pics.

So, the set began with Rick, Hamish and Angus on the didges, with Roel doing a tribal beat behind them. This dissolved slowly, with first Rick picking up his guitar, then Angus with his bass, and finally Hamish picked up his guitar. The sped right into So Familiar and had the crowd dancing along. Once this was over, Roel thanked someone who had sent him a drink, and asked what the heck it was (it was some mixed drink). He took a sip and was like "whoa!" The set moved along quickly, right into One Touch. No penny whistle this time, but the song just keeps getting better and better every time we hear it. Somewhere in the beginning here, Roel was having problems with his recorded grooves. They got it working, and he started the intro to Crazy, I guess to check it. There was an immense scream from the crowd and Roel said something like "nope, sorry, we're not playing that one.... Yet......" Next was Fragile, which was again just awesome. This led into Name, which was very powerful. There's just something about the words to that song.

At that point, Jim had put a stool out on stage behind Hamish. When they were finished Name, Angus walked over and was talking to Rick and Hamish. Rick then started to jump up and down like a little kid, saying "Do it, do it, do it!!!" Of course, without even knowing what, we agreed, and started to chant along that Angus should do it. The rest of the guys then left the stage, leaving Angus along with Hamish's guitar. Roel came up front to where I was, gave me a silly look, and hopped off the stage right next to us. Angus told us that they had been trying to get him to do this for a while, but he hadn't done the song since they had recorded it. We probably knew the words better than he did, he said. There was some funky drummer out in the audience heckling him, but he started off singing Believe Again. Yeah, maybe he did forget some words, but he just kept going and the song was beautiful. He got a ton of shouts and applause, and just flashed his shy grin. The boys returned to the stage, and started Hang On, which got the crowd all worked up again.

Hamish pulled a fellow fan from the crowd onstage to sing along with Hang On with them. Hang On was very tight, and the crowd was so loud singing along. At some point on here too, Angus reached up to the rafter above the stage, with his bass and everything, and pulled himself up and hung there, which resulted in a huge cheer. He did it again during the second set too. The boys finished up the set with an extended version of Shadowman. They were all moving about the stage, and Hamish ended up right in front of C and I for quite a while, playing his didg back at Roel and Rick. Angus ended up over on Hamish's side of the stage. The entire song absolutely rocked, and it was a great way to close the first set. Great first set, full of excellent songs, some of the slower stuff, but enough to get the crowd riled up. So, we had a short break.

The second set list was taped down, and I happened to catch a glimpse at it. It read like this:

Bitch
Crazy
River
Time
-------------
Hope
All
Unk
--------------
Time (Red)
2 Weeks
Good
Clumsy

But, they didn't play that. The set began with Hamish entering the stage with a woman with a Native American Flute. He introduced her as his friend, Mary Youngblood. They began to improvise together, Hamish on the didg and Mary on the flute. It was amazing how well it worked together and how the audience responded. The rest of the band then entered, and they all played together. Again, just haunting and beautiful. Once that song ended, Mary left the stage, and the guys began a very power charged version of Bitch.

At that point, they began Crazy, and the bubbles appeared. Hamish called out to the audience to see if anyone had a spare guitar amp, cause apparently Rick had just blown his. There was then an extended jam session kind of to the Crazy beat, as the repair work went on. Oleg from the Red Elvises appeared behind us, and called out to the boys. He made his way on to stage. He danced around the stage, then took a drumstick from Roel and joined him on the kit. Hamish played some didg, but ended up crossing behind Roel and also joining in on the kit. Roel started an impromptu chorus of "Lady Marmalade", which was just marvelous and then Angus and Rick joined in. Oleg ended up drumming with Roel's extra sticks on Angus' bass, then they began a conga line. Hamish and Oleg jumped off the stage right next to me, grabbing a hold of my arms for support while jumping off. They then proceeded to conga around the room, and into the next one. While Hamish was off conga-ing, Rick's amp was repaired, and they started Crazy, with Rick singing lead - and doing a very nice job. The bubbles started again in earnest! Everyone was having a great time. Hamish reappeared on stage to grab his pipes and they finished the song with a bang. Next was thetimeisnow, which is rearranged vocally and has a more menacing (but in a good way) feel to it. Rick and Angus shared Angus' mic at points, Angus swung his pipes behind his back, across his shoulder, Roel was insanely loud.

Next was Hope, which calmed and slowed things down a little bit, and following that, was All I know. This current version of the song is really becoming one of my favorites. Hamish and Angus sang together at the mic for a bit, and this song just rocked. At this point, my memory gets a little hazy, because the show just kept going and going. I know Angus and Hamish both had their pipes up, so I believe that at they did play Unknown. I'm pretty sure Two weeks was not done. I do have a pic of Roel standing up from his kit and clapping, so I am pretty darn certain that they played It's All Good. Yeah, actually now that I am sitting here listening to the song, I'm remembering more and more. At this point, my memory gets a little clearer - I think. The guys started to call out for Oleg again, and Rick started to play the Peter Gunn theme, is one of those spy movie themes (and coincidentally, the music C and I had been sorting when he came out earlier).

They called Oleg up on stage, and possibly played Clumsy at that point. Someone with a better memory help me out here. They then asked Zhenya and Igor were with him. All three Red Elvises ended up on stage, and Hamish said that the Brother boys had just recently learned how much then enjoy drumming. At this point, he climbed behind Roel again, and grabbed some sticks. Angus surrendered his bass to Oleg, also grabbing drumsticks, and Rick gave his guitar to Zhenya. A bit of tuning - cause apparently Angus tunes his bass down a half step, and Oleg would have had to transpose on the spot - they were off. A rousing version of "I can't get no satisfaction", with Igor starting lead, Oleg on bass, Zhenya on guitar, and Hamish, Roel and Angus on the drums.

Wondering where Rick is? Well, he wandered off and joined us in the crowd. Hamish came around and helped him back up onto the stage, and he joined Igor on the vocals. Rick ran off again and came back with beers for everyone. They then launched into an extended version of "Honky Tonk Woman". It was so loud at this point it was crazy!! The energy of these seven guys was amazing! They headed offstage, but we weren't going to let them go. We continued screaming, clapping and just generally carrying on, staring at the curtain at the side of the stage. After waiting for what seemed an eternity, Jim's arm suddenly appeared from the curtain, waving us on! We just got louder.

Out came the boys, with Oleg and whole bunch of beers. Angus and Hamish picked up their pipes and started in with Amazing Grace. We couldn't believe it! The entire audience was singing along for several verses and it just kept going. Rick played a fabulous solo, then commenced in spraying us with beer. It was an amazing way to end the night! Such a great show. I'm not doing it justice, I'm sure. The stage was very small, but the guys made the most of it, often balancing right on the edge of the stage, where there was a small slanted wooden board (Angus and Rick did this several times) and hopping off into the crowd. The energy was fantastic, and the guys were so tight.

As people have posted on the boards, we always think they'll never top the latest show, yet, they always do. This one is going to be difficult. The guys hung around in one of the rooms for a while afterwards, graciously signing anything they were given and posing for lots of pics. Lots of people wanted to talk to them after the show, so we just kind of hovered. Everyone looked exhausted, but invigorated from the show. Talked to the wonderful Teri for a while, met up with everyone, and then just past 2 AM, the Sterling crew was ready to close the place down. We said our good-byes to all, had one last smiling look at the room, and headed out. What a wonderful night. Brother just keeps on getting better and better. I hope they come back here really soon.

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