Entertainment Week — WWE and Pearl Jam

Last week was enter­tain­ment week for us: we had tick­ets for two shows in Ottawa, Mon­day Night RAW and Pearl Jam.
When I first saw wrestling on TV in Canada, I dis­missed it right away: “it looks fake and I bet it’s fixed!” I was later informed that indeed, the fight fol­lowed a spe­cific “chore­og­ra­phy” and that the out­come was deter­mined in advance. This is not the point of WWE any­way. It has to be watched as the­ater: char­ac­ters chal­lenge each other, adopt gim­micks and por­tray roles.

Billy Talent, Live

A few days ear­lier, after see­ing The Trag­i­cally Hip, I was at the Billy Tal­ent con­cert. I fell in love with the Toronto band when I first came to Canada and took the oppor­tu­nity to see them live. I wasn’t disappointed—they rocked it!

The Tragically Hip, Live

Finally. Finally, I’m a real Cana­dian, a lit­tle bit over two years after tak­ing my cit­i­zen­ship oath.
I sur­vived many win­ters, I took my dri­ving license in the snow, ate beaver­tails, went to hockey games… but I had never seen The Trag­i­cally Hip live until last week. And every­body knows that see­ing Canada’s favourite band live is a must-do for all Cana­di­ans. The Hip are one of the stuff Cana­di­ans like. When I learned the band played at the Blues­fest in Ottawa, I decided I sim­ply had to go to com­plete my Cana­dian education.

U2 Concert in Sydney

I had never taken the boat to a con­cert but since Syd­ney offered us the oppor­tu­nity, we jumped on the ferry to the Olympic Park to go see U2.

Yes, U2.

The Wall Live

On the stage, half a wall was built with white bricks.
Roger Waters came on scene at 8 pm sharp. Fire­works lit up the place and he began singing. “So ya
Thought ya/ Might like to go to the show/ To feel the warm thrill of con­fu­sion and/ That space cadet glow”.

5 Concert Photography Tips (III)

A few years ago, con­cert pho­tog­ra­phy was pretty much off-limits for ama­teur photographer—unless you knew the band. Nowa­days, it seems that most venues gave up on ban­ning cam­eras.
The last few years, I was able to get in with my DSLR and a cou­ple of lenses. Suits me. It allowed me to exper­i­ment with con­cert photography.

Hockey Day In Canada

Last Sat­ur­day, Hockey Day In Canada took place through­out the coun­try. You basi­cally had two option: 1) the lazy option, which was to watch the triple­header of NHL action fea­tur­ing the six Cana­dian teams on T.V 2) the brave option, which was to take your gear and go play hockey in the street.

Metallica Concert In Ottawa

You hadn’t pic­tured me as a met­al­head, had you? Well, I’m not usu­ally into heavy metal but I love Metal­lica. I had heard the band was great live and I couldn’t wait to attend the con­cert in Ottawa.