Our Lady Peace A Concert Review	March 12, 1998 The Metro Chicago, IL A Review by The Dude on the Right

Well, I finally found a parking spot about ten blocks away from The Metro, and by the time I made my way through unshoveled sidewalks, dodged a couple of speeding cars, and my fingers became numb with cold, I found myself standing at the rear of the crowd, and Our Lady Peace had already taken the stage. In all honesty, I had absolutely no idea what to expect going into this show because I knew two things about Our Lady Peace: "Superman's Dead," and "Clumsy." That was it, two songs that I had heard on the radio, and nothing more. I can hear you mumbling now, "Another uninformed critic, knowing nothing about the band I love, who is going to wail on them and say they suck and should head back to Canada and do some ice-fishing." Well, hold your horses there Sport. Yes, before the show I only knew about two songs and really didn't expect much, but after the show, well, I now see why the band has developed the strong following it has, why it is selling out shows in Chicago, and why the potential is there for them to move on to bigger and better venues.

See, as I stood there, on my toes, peering around the tall dude in front of me, and blocking out the drunk dudes voices around me who seemed to think that "South Park" must be imitated everywhere they go (I sort of wished they were all named "Kenny" and the end would come soon), I began to see most of the rest of the sold out crowd singing along to every song that Raine Maida belted out. There these four guys were, Raine on vocals, Mike Turner on guitar, Duncan Coutts on bass, and Jeremy Taggart on drums, up on stage, and I started humming along with the melodies, kind of tapping to the beat, and almost wished I was up there with the body-surfers, pointing at the boys of the band like they were the best thing they had ever seen and heard. Well, I won't say Our Lady Peace was the best thing I had ever seen or heard, then again, they aren't my favorite style of music, but I did like them. I will, though, give credit where credit is due, and a lot of credit goes to the band for what I have found out after reading about them, and after seeing them live - they are one hell of a group of determined guys.

From what I've read since the show, these guys have been around a lot longer than I figured, and although not the most animated or talkative guys on stage, as a band they sure knew what they were doing, and that usually only comes with playing a lot in front of people. Raine didn't say much, just a little about where the name "Our Lady Peace" came from, and towards the end he thanked everyone for making this show their first one that was sold out in Chicago. He almost seemed surprised that the show sold out, but from what I saw I wasn't surprised at all. They played the two songs I knew, and a killer cover of The Beatles' "Dear Prudence," much to the delight of me, and played well over an hour's worth of songs that everyone else knew, much to the delight of everyone else.

Me, I found Our Lady Peace playing this mix of the psychedelic of old with metal tendencies of new, combined with these spooky videos of some old guy, and it was pretty cool. But, this night, it didn't mean a hill of beans if I had a good time - all that mattered was if the sold out crowd had a good time - and from the looks of the sweaty bodies making their way from the crowd - the sold out crowd did. Hell, I had a good time too.

So, Our Lady Peace gets TWO BIG THUMBS UP from me! I was pleasantly surprised.

That's it for this one, I'm The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!