William Fitzsimmons - concert

Well I realize that I'm a little behind on my posts. I've got about 6 drafts started but I just have not gotten around to finishing them. They may appear someday when life slows down but with summer approaching - that doesn't seem realistic any time soon.

But I needed to post about this one...I mean, how can I not, right? I can sure tell you how much I'm looking forward to U2 and that I was looking forward to William Fitzsimmons but it was all about U2 if you had spoken to me in the last month. Well...William Fitzsimmons...I might still be looking forward to U2 because it's on my bucket list but I'll be talking about William Fitzsimmons for a long time.

So Becca Mabbett and I departed at 9:30am on Saturday for Kelowna. Yes - we drove 8 hours for a concert. A concert that I'm pretty sure that Becca was still undecided about. I had gotten the ticket for Becca for her birthday but my suspicions were always that it was similar to when a husband buys his wife a drill for Christmas - nice thought but we really know who the drill is for. As might have been the case with Becca and I. But we departed and headed out for Kelowna. It was a beautiful day and got to about 28 degrees by the time we hit Enderby. Perfect.

The whole story about the concert and tickets was that I had been checking WF's website for months looking for a concert that was within driving distance of me. Apparently 8 hours is within those limits. The website had said 'sold out' but I'm determined and grew up believing that you should always ask - what's the worst thing that somebody could ever tell you? Well - I called and asked and got a couple of tickets out of the deal. I had no idea where in Kelowna the concert was - only that I was going to see William Fitzsimmons.

The concert was at the Streaming Cafe. Very small - only seated about 35 people. The concert was being streamed online for free which is, I guess, why WF would have been playing there. The night before he had done a concert at a very large forum with a full band (which is normal for him) the night before in Vancouver. The concert last night was tiny - like I said, 35 people and only WF and his guitars. You (or viewers online) could text in questions to him while he played which he could answer in between songs. He was funny and witty with the questions - nothing scripted. He was transparent in his answers and genuine. It was like we were at a VIP concert.

He sang my favourite songs. Beautiful Girl, The Tide Pulls From The Moon, Fade and then Return, Passion Play, So This is the End, Find it in Me, and Covered In Snow. And that was just during the "official" concert. His musicianship is just off the charts and he's got such a phenomenal story. I'm not going to lie - I teared up a few times.

So the greatest thing that happened was when 8:30pm came around. And his concert was done. The small crowd called for an encore and he did a couple requests (also awesome). And then got up and left through the side door...kind of. He poked his head back in and whispered for us to hang out for a moment while the Cafe went offline. Then the best part started. He unplugged his guitars and left the stage area (which was like 10 feet from where we were all sitting) and started playing whatever people called out for him to play. He stood infront and sang...and stood in the back and played. The picture to the left has Becca's head in the lower left - he joked about how close he was to Becca's head and if it was okay to shred in her ear. WF had started playing Good Morning and then stopped so that he could pose for the picture I had started taking. That's where, sadly, he ended. But he came back and signed my poster, and took a picture with me and asked me questions about where I was from and how grateful he was that we had driven 8 hours to see him and maybe, just maybe he would tour to Alberta next time (yea right, but sweet that he said so). I was definitely star struck.

The one thing I didn't do was touch his beard. He had said that people could if they really wanted to as long as they weren't creepy about it (he gave an example of what creepy looks like). I thought about it...even joked with him about it but then came to the conclusion that I didn't want to be remembered as the fan who just really wanted to touch his beard. It was enough that I joked about it with him. I felt like that left me in the dignified category of fandom.

So there you have it. William Fitzsimmons concert 2011. And just for the record - now that I've been...I would drive twice as far to see him again.

peace out
.:cort:.