David Usher has been one of my favorite artists since the days of Moist. I've never seen him in concert...long story (involving the fact that I promised Linds I'd wait for an all ages show so we could go together). He's played several shows here - always in venues that were 19 and up. We finally learned that he would be doing an all ages show here which had us very excited and counting down the days. He'd be playing an outdoor set at Winterfest, right out in the street not far from our place! Well it finally happened (Friday night) and, let me tell you, it was so much more than what we'd expected.

First of all, the weather cooperated nicely. Although we've been experiencing snow/sleet/rain, it was fairly mild - a little on the cold side but it was WINTERfest afterall. And we're not wimps (that's a lie).

We arrived early, in order to secure a good spot for ogling David. I'm not above ogling. Anyhow, we had to wait a bit and suffer through enjoy a few opening acts first - young kids break dancing and doing some hip hop stuff. Then a local girl, Cherelle Jardin, took the stage...she's sort of a bluesy-rock and roll gal who does all the local events here and is making a bit of a name for herself. She was quite good, but no David Usher.

David was late and we really thought this might cut into his performance time. In all honesty, I'd expected a few obligatory songs to say he participated. Boy, was I ever wrong.

Now he's been working on some new stuff and hasn't performed in awhile and, apparently, he was very enthusiastic about getting back on stage. He expressed this and it was obvious that he was really enjoying himself. He did a full set (including some old Moist stuff) and didn't seem like he wanted to leave. He smiled as he tore up the stage, jumping and dancing all over like a banshee. At one point he came out to the audience, climbed on the fence that was holding us crazy ladies back and held on to the hands of a lucky few who held him steady as he did an entire song perched up amongst us. It was awesome!

Anyhow, they were signalling to him that time was up when he said, "aw, can I do one more?" and proceeded to do 3. And then came back for a two song encore after that.

It was a beautiful thing. My fingers were so frozen that I couldn't click the shutter on my camera and had to use my thumb. I got God awful video that is pure distortion as I was right in front of the speakers. Oh well, I tried. The highlight for me was when he did "My Way Out" (an oldie) and then "Crazy" (Gnarls Barkley). My video's terrible, so here's another that I found on YouTube (although I must say he went much crazier at our show).

I definitely left there feeling the love. I can hardly wait until he's back this way again.