Todd's stage presence was even more powerful than I expected it to be, and the band was in tip-top shape. They played for almost two hours but the music was so good it seemed to pass a lot quicker than that. It kept me wanting more and I'm sure the others in the crowd felt the same.
The audience was mainly composed of baby boomers who no doubt discovered Todd back in the early days and were there to hear his older hits like "I Saw the Light," "One World" and "Black Maria," which had everyone completely hypnotized as he belted them out with tremendous passion.
I was probably one of the few there who didn't discover his music until No World Order came out in 1993, so I was in heaven when he hauled out more recent songs like "Fascist Christ" and "Worldwide Epiphany." Todd opened the show with "Buffalo Grass" and "I Hate My Frickin' ISP" which were great to hear as well. "Temporary Sanity" and "Mammon" also sounded unbelievable.
It's obvious to me now that Todd is one of those artists you'll never fully appreciate until you see him live. I love his studio albums, but the songs just seemed to take on a very different quality when performed on stage.
Like his previous shows on the Canada tour, he did two encores which included breathtaking performances of "Hawking" and "Love of the Common Man," which had everyone totally speechless. He really sang his heart out and those two songs alone were worth the ticket price.
Being my first time seeing him, I still can't believe I spent an evening standing within a few feet of one of my musical idols. I was told it's been around 30 years since he was last in Winnipeg, so who knows if he'll ever be back. I'm not religious, but I consider myself absolutely blessed to have seen him perform here.
It really was a night to remember, and the only (slight) disappointment was when Todd didn't come back out onto the stage to sign autographs like I hear he's done after previous shows on the tour. A bunch of us hung around the stage for about 20 minutes afterward until we were told he wouldn't be coming back out. Oh well, we were allowed to take photos during the first three songs of the show, so I'll always have those and it was fantastic just to see him.
I hope he knows how much Winnipeg loves his music and I believe I speak for everyone who was there last night when I say "Todd, please come back! We love you!"
