Big Sugar with Wide Mouth Mason live at the Burton Cummings Theatre in Winnipeg, MB on November 10, 2011.
Starting off the night as fans made their way to their seats was Saskatoon band, Wide Mouth Mason. Playing a guitar-solo heavy set, Wide Mouth Mason took the stage for 50 minutes.
Up next; headliner Big Sugar. Lead singer/guitarist Gordie Johnson played with his band of 7, which consisted of 2 pianists on the keyboards, a drummer, bassist, guitarist, percussionist, as well as a female singer. Playing with a basic set of visual effects, the focus of the night was purely on the music.
A major flaw of the night was Gordie Johnson’s overwhelming amp. While the music seemed perfect on the upper balconies as well as near the sound board, anyone remotely close could only hear a loud, distorted guitar. The guitar drowned out the voices and other instruments to the people of the front row, which is unfortunate as those are the most expensive and desired seats in the house!
With that aside, the rest of the show went by smoothly as the Rastafarian rock band went on. Playing their hits ‘Turn The Lights On’ as well as ‘Diggin’ a Hole’, were accompanied by a large set list.
With many guitar switches throughout the night, lead singer Johnson covered a guitar-version of ‘I Want You’ by the iconic Beatles. Ending off the night he played his Canadian flag guitar during his Canadian hit song ‘All Hell For a Basement’ and then merged into their version of ‘O Canada’ before making their way into their Encore after leaving the stage.
Overall, besides the guitar sound quality, the night went smoothly as a mere sold out Burton Cummings Theatre was filled with classic Canadian rock.
