Ryder in Red

A great way to close out one of the final weekends of the Summer is to drive down to T.O. for a concert and visit the CNE. That is exactly what we did. We were fortunate to have tickets for Serena Ryder and Canadian legends Blue Rodeo. It has been er… decades? since the last time I was at the CNE. It is pretty much the same. A lot of people, sounds, smells and things to do. We dropped in for food (and since our concert tickets got us in for free) and to wander around a bit.

Rush pop! OMG.

I was looking for the Rush Pop! but I think it is actually at a separate convention with its own entrance fee, so alas, it seems it isn’t meant to be. The first order of business was to find some food. I was hoping to get a unique and interesting meal from one of the many food trucks at the CNE. I guess I was hyped on food trucks from some of the great food I’ve seen from various foodie tv series. But alas – the options were ultimately disappointing and uninspiring. My Philly steak from Philthy Phillys was very ordinary and bland (the staff was nice tho), bdot fared better with Fish n’ Chips from Gourmet Guyz. We did a quick loop inside one of the exhibition halls then made our way over to the Budweiser stage. (Oh, and beer at the venue was $16.50!! lolZ)

I’ve been cursed lately anytime I attend a concert with assigned seating. If there are one or two people ruining the concert experience at the entire show, I guarantee they will be sitting in my row. This show was no exception. Two clowns beside bdot were ridiculous the entire show. When the couple weren’t groping each other, they were taking selfies with their camera light ON (the only one I could see on at the entire venue) blinding tons of people. It was beyond gregariously obnoxious. They were bumping into people – it was really starting to set me off. Many of the people around us made a comment to us when they were gone (I assumed to get off in a dark corner somewhere)… they were incredibly rude and selfish and even made some flippant comment about Serena. *eyeroll* I hope they step a large lego and lost their car keys. Dicks.

I’ve never seen Serena before but bdot has a few times. I was quite impressed with her and her really solid band. They rocked and got the crowd primed for Blue Rodeo.

Like a diamond mine… (oh hey CN Tower)

Blue Rodeo was simply amazing and completely captivating. Each song included long virtuosic solos by nearly everyone on stage, and lasted 8-9 minutes long each. They may be getting up there in age but that didn’t show in the performance. It was spot on. The live version of ‘Diamond Mine‘ was exhilarating. They closed the night by bringing Serena on stage for an extended version of ‘Lost Together‘. I’m not sure how much longer Blue Rodeo will be together so I’m glad we caught these Canadian legends.

It was a fun night in T.O. Parking, while expensive actually worked out pretty well and we got out of the lot rather painlessly. I think that was a first. As we were leaving the show the San Pellegrino staff were handing out their chilled bevvies for free. Their lemon and peach with tea were actually really good and perfect for a hot night. Yum.

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