Photos and a review of Switchfoot in Ottawa

[This report is from Karen Coughtrey with photos by Ming Wu. – AC]

On an unseasonably warm September Friday night (the 20th) Ottawa’s Alternative and Christian Rock fans descended on the Bronson Centre to hear Switchfoot play their 2003 major label debut album, The Beautiful Letdown, in its entirety, live.

Opening the night was Toronto-born, LA-based, Lostboycrow. He opened his set by book ending his song about Canada, ‘November Sleep’ with a cover of ‘Linger’ by the Cranberries. The song mentions several places in Ontario but notably not Ottawa and he admitted that this was his first visit to the Nation’s capital.

He has a young, cute, all-american, boy-next-door appeal and his music reminds one of the Happy Days era of pop, juke boxes in a small town diner, a simpler time, there’s a discernible beachy vibe to it.

The stage set up was simple, just Lostboycrow and his guitar and a wayfinder sign post of mile markers. He would explain, as intro to ‘Since The Day I Was Born,’ that some were real places, and others ideas or goals, to remind him and represent where he should be and that we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be.

Although he was a new artist to most in attendance, he had the audience singing and clapping along and even mesmerised when he invited his friend Boaz Roberts (also currently performing with Switchfoot) to take over the guitar on ‘Discount Dreamer’ a single he released just earlier this year.

He would end the set on another serene note that would see the crowd pull out their lights, another new one, this one not out yet and no song title revealed, about a beautiful perfect day and doing what you love and sharing it with others.

Playing to us from the bottom of a pool (or so the backdrop projection would suggest), Switchfoot got the crowd’s attention by digitally spray painting, The Beautiful Letdown, complete with very realistic sound effects on the wall, and took the stage, unsurprisingly to massive applause, opening with ‘Ammunition’.

They would mention several times that it was a bittersweet night for them as a band, as Ottawa was the last stop on this cross Canada tour and it was clear they’ve really enjoyed revisiting their seminal 2003 album with their northern fans. The audience was clearly stoked when they announced they’d be playing the album in its entirety between playing ‘This Is Your Life’ and breaking out the harmonica on ‘More Than Fine.’

They made several jokes throughout the night about the era of the early 00’s and music being passed around through burnt CD’s by friends. They remarked that one might think their friend had burnt the tracks in the wrong order and that one might be finding the order of their setlist strange. But in fact, interestingly, they’d chosen purposefully to play the tracks out of order. One can only wonder why, and how that might have affected the listening experience and concert enjoyment of the long-time dedicated fan of the album. Did it make the old feel new and exciting again or did it just feel strange and unexpected.

There is a real spirituality that is noticeably felt by the audience in the music from this album and Jon spoke throughout the night about energies and vibes and alluding to a greater power for which they are grateful for the success of this album and it’s ability to connect with so many people and he spoke about the wonder of going from whispering the lyrics in his childhood bedroom while still living with his parents to now screaming them out to crowds in large rooms before launching into the album’s title track, ‘The Beautiful Letdown’, on which he would come down and walk amongst the crowd on the floor.

He spoke about the lie that comes at the dark times, that tells you this tired old planet will always be broken, that our tired souls will always be weary, that hope isn’t real and dedicated ‘Dare You To Move’ to the light that finds us in those times and restores our faith in the world.

Jon had lots to say to the crowd, filling between song breaks with pointing out fans in the audience he’d run into earlier in the day on a walk around town, or fans that had travelled from Montreal, Denmark, Brazil and Chile and even sharing a funny story about Jerome joining the band after initially refusing the offer because had a real office job filing and faxing. Spoiler alert he quit on the second day of said job to join the band and has never looked back.

It really was a show for the fans and they expressed that what they love about music is its ability to break down barriers and they hoped that those in attendance felt like they were part of something bigger than their solitary selves.

They let the crowd take over vocals on several tracks including ‘Meant To Live.’ They dedicated ‘Adding To The Noise’ to those that know they can’t dance but do anyway. Lucky fan, Seth got to join them on stage to introduce a song but accidentally introduced a song from the B-side of the album rather than the actual intended track ‘Twenty-Four’, creating not only a comical moment but a birthday wish from the band as the track name mirrored the age he’d just turned recently.

They did also play songs not from that 2003 album including ‘Stars,’ ‘Love Alone Is Worth The Fight’ and ‘Oh!Gravity’, the last being a fan request told to him when he met a fan while lost backstage.

They demonstrated the family nature of the band, gathering together centre stage with Tim on his “magical tambourine” for ‘Hello Hurricane.’ Jerome would choose the last number of the main set, ‘Where I Belong’ but starting with a snippet of Bob Marley’s ‘Three Little Birds’ and Jon would hold up an I’m Where I Belong pennant (possibly taken from an audience member) and ended the song with an exchange with the crowd of hand hearts held high.

The encore was requested by one of the crew and was dedicated to anyone in a rough spot, to all the ‘Dark Horses’ in attendance, and also featured a snippet of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir.’ The crowd left happy and if anyone wondered what kind of people attend a Switchfoot show the audible chorus of voices saying “See You Sunday” gave them away.

Switchfoot
Jon Foreman – lead vocals, lead guitar
Tim Foreman – bass, backing vocals, acoustic guitar
Chad Butler – drums, percussion
Jerome Fontamillas – keyboards, piano, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Boaz Roberts (touring) – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals