Ron Sexsmith
Saturday 17th November 2001
The Spirit Store
Dundalk
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It was Dr. J who made the suggestion for this gig, as he's the true Ron fan. I only became interested after he had bought the tickets and described to me how small the venue was. The venue location was also a little unusual: the town of Dundalk, over an hour's drive from Dublin. We agreed that if there was a spare ticket (a reasonable chance, as he had bought four) then I would attend. (I had actually seen Ron play before - at this gig with Elvis Costello)
There was a spare ticket. I was the one who attended. Thus I was to make my way to "The Spirit Stores" to meet Dr. J at about 8.30pm. But I've got relations, so I arrived in Dundalk at around 5.00pm, and had dinner with Monique, Carrie, and Byram. I hung around for a while and chatted, then Byram and I drove into Dundalk town and found the venue.
I met Dr. J as arranged, and we went inside to meet the rest of the gang - Mattie and Heidi. Mattie had already run into Ron, so the standards for the evening were set. We went upstairs. Other folks had already started taking their seats, but we got the best table in the house - about three metres stage right from where Ron would be singing.
Support one came on. He was an excellent Irish singer/songwriter and I was pleasantly surprised. Support two was a girl from Boston who sang the blues (I'm not the best fan of the blues). Then Ron came on, backed by his All-Canadian three piece band.
I took to his band straight away. The drummer played with fantastic rhythm and timing. He also utilised a few simple percussion devices that allowed him to create fantastic sounds. He played the cello and sang backing vocals too. The bassist had cool hair and looked like one of the guys from Beck's band. He played nice bass lines, sang well, and looked good (which is important for a bassist). The electric guitarist was skilled, and produced a wide variety of sounds that complemented Ron perfectly, but the drummer and bassist were my favourite.
Ron himself played and sang with effortless ease. He seemed perfectly at home and joked with the crowd between songs. There's not much more to say about Ron, I don't know his music well enough to tell you what songs he played, all I know is that he was excellent and he kept my attention all evening.
After the gig Dr. J and Mattie went up to buy the re-released CD of Ron's first album. Mister Sexsmith was by this time hanging around, so they chatted with him briefly and got their CD's autographed. This made them happy.
We hung around for another while until then Mattie and Heidi split. A short time later Dr. J and I did the same, but not before we caught Ron one more time to pose for a photo with Dr. Jay.
The journey home seemed a bit weird and unworldly, but that's what I get for driving alone on motorways at two in the morning whilst listening to Kraftwerk.
ps - there are now some photos of this gig under "Concerts" in the People Section.
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