Friday, November 2, 2012

Sky High

 
The ad in the paper caught our eye so we bought the tickets and took in the Sky Family concert on Tuesday evening. They are a father and his four kids Celtic revival band. It was an evening of Don Messer's Jubilee/Rankin Family/Riverdance, from PEI. As in any concert, there is both good and not so good. I will get the criticism over with first.
This band needs a good sound engineer. How can you have such a huge bank of massive speakers and never once hear the bass guitar? The sound was much like that coming out of a cheap battery powered radio. The richness of sound that should have been coming out of the variety of instruments was missing. The back tracks were a bit better, but should have been just that, in the background. And, the whole thing was too long. Way too long.
 
But don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed the evening. This was a fresh-faced bunch of people who exuded joy and a love of what they were doing. Except for the bass player, they all have skills with a variety of instruments and they all danced, some of them extremely well. The dad, who was the 'front man', had 'down home' appeal and a delightful sense of humour. They had an interesting 'story'.
Their tour is sponsored by a fairly new charity called World Gifters. They are not so much a fund raising band as an  evangelistic outreach ministry. Yes, there was preaching, but done by the father who had by now endeared himself to the audience. It was gentle, honest and heartfelt preaching with a genuine concern for the direction our Canada is taking.
It was an evening well spent and I wish this family all the best.   

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