Imelda-Mayzing!

August 13, 2011
Deer Lake Park
Burnaby, British Columbia

Today was a dream come true. Four days after I fell in love with Imelda May, I got the absolute pleasure of seeing her perform at the Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival in Deer Lake Park. It was an insanely fun show, but it wasn't without its kinks.

Immediately suspect was the stool set up at Imelda's mic before the band took the stage. "Surely, she's not going to sit for even a second," I thought. But then, when introducing the band, the festival host announced that there was an unfortunate "slip" about an hour ago. Surely enough, when the band came out, Imelda very carefully hobbled over to her place with her right foot heavily bandaged. May jokingly blamed her injury on us for having such beautiful scenery: she'd fallen while trying to climb a fence to get a view of the lake. Although she'd heard a crack, she proclaimed "but we got a gig to play!" and that she'd wait until after the show to go straight to the hospital. And just like that, the show went on.

Another bad omen came maybe less than a minute into the show. Almost as quickly as the band started to play, Al Gare broke a string on his stand-up bass. A stage-hand didn't return with the re-strung bass until about halfway through the set, but Al didn't use it much after that.

Injured foot and broken bass-string aside, the show was every bit as fun as I'd expected. Seemingly unfazed by her painkillers, Imelda was as expressive as ever, and she looked like a million bucks, aside from her bandaged foot and a few noticeable patches of dirt on her yellow-and-black-striped dress and large black waist belt. Speaking of her appearance, I was shocked that she looked exactly like she does in all of her photos, dolled up to the extent that I can't even remember if she sweated. Her band mates were far more casually dressed, however, and they noticeably felt the heat.

Even though Imelda May was not one-hundred percent, pretty much stood in one spot and could barely stand on both feet, she still put on an amazing show. I was partially correct about her not sitting for even a second: to her credit, she didn't sit once or even lean against her stool much. Furthermore, they played every song I wanted hear except at least one; you can hardly beat that, especially considering she has three albums' worth of material from which to choose. Honestly, the most I had to complain about regarding the show was that I spent most of it blocking out the sun with my hand.

It was an absolute joy to watch Imelda et al. perform, and it was a good thing I decided to drop those seventy dollars just to see them: the Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival was their final North American date before they took off to Europe for the rest of the year. I can only imagine how fun it would have been to have seen them at the Neptune Theatre in Seattle the night before with a crowd that was there specifically for Imelda May, no blinding sun, no six-plus-foot gap between the barricade and the stage and a one-hundred percent healthy Imelda (obviously minus the wear-and-tear of being on the road). But again, I really had nothing to complain about, and I can already scratch her name off of my musical bucket list. Four days after I first heard her: I don't think I'll ever break that record. But did I ever think I'd hear an Imelda May?