live8 post mortem

i really wasn't going to write anything more about live8 - but i have decided to have one final post on these shows.... and i will try to refrain from ranting about how unentertaining the canadian show was.

here comes the final rant - well, maybe : barrie, step right up onto the world stage. take your rightful place with pride along side paris, london, rome, berlin, tokyo, moscow and philadelphia. yeah - it's time the world got to know how mighty and influential barrie is! step right up and show the world gray and withered men standing on soapboxes, strangling harmonicas and lulling us all into a nice long slumber. the people of barrie and random hosers in attendance can be excused for all seeming just as excited as they would be at a trade-show conference showing new fishing tackle for the year. oh, sorry. my bad - that might of gotten a bit more of a rise out of the crowd.

ok - enough bitter and jaded frothy ramblings about the canadian version of live8. we all knew it wasn't going to be great, or even good. it will soon be forgotten (as it should) and we will all remember the amazing performances coming to the world out of hyde park in london. all day saturday i sat on the sofa and watched live8 feeds. first i watched on ctv, where before the local coverage started - i was treated to london and berlin - but mostly london. because let's face it - that's the show that geldof was really involved with & that's the show that had the real emotion and honesty. then after we stared seeing tom cochrane and bryan adams and co. my roommate discovered the live streaming feeds on aol.com.

that's right. live feeds from all of the participating cities. on demand. switching from one city to another. once again, i marvel at the power and scope of the internet. seriously - WHAT did we do before the internet? i'm 34 and i really don't know how i got through university without the internet.

so - through the computer - i got to see the performances live(ish) in london. got to see the crowd having an amazingly fun time (in stark contrast to the canadian crowd who couldn't even get excited about sam roberts). the brits seemed like they KNEW they were there to try to bring the focus of the g8 leaders to them. they seemed like they KNEW that even though the musicians were on the stage - that the real stars of the show were the crowd - that their enthusiasm and excitement and energy will help to propel this cry for change straight from the stadiums of the world into the ears of the politicians.

and the performances in london. from the expected amazing u2 (with an incredible sgt. peppers with bono & sir paul), to sincere and earnest band the killers, to mindblowing pink floyd, to a deliciously spine-chilling version of 'bittersweet symphony' with boring coldplay and scary richard ashcroft, to beautiful annie lennox, to political punchy sting, to goodtime boy robbie williams, to a patented show closing set by sir paul.

there were misses too. rest assured. basically whenever an artist attempted to gather crocodile tears by seeming to 'use' african children (hello mariah, and you too madonna). madonna was actually a real disappointment. she came on stage after bob geldof brought a young african woman out to the crowd - this young woman was one of the ones who survived the famine in ethiopia 25 years ago (possibly as a result of the original live aid concerts). there were some uncomfortable sensationalistic elements to geldof's gesture - but he is so sincere about what he does, one feels dirty charging him with emotional manipulation. however, one does not feel dirty about charging madonna with the same offense. what was she thinking? she started dragging this young woman around the stage like a prop. it was very uncomfortable and shameful.

other unnecessary performances were snoop dogg (actually urging the live8 crowd to 'wave your arms in the air, like you just don't care') and velvet revolver (no comment, other than scott weiland sadly really looks like he could also personally benefit from the end of poverty).

today i'm not going to talk about the reason these shows took place. by now, i hope, we all know why. and in a few days time the men who lead the most prosperous nations in the world will meet to talk about forgiving debt to african nations and to talk canada and the us into upping their foreign aid contributions to the 0.7% suggested by our own lester b. pearson 30 years ago. woefully, canada is no where near this amount, infact, with the exception of the united states, every other g8 nation is pulling their weight. why aren't we?

in the meantime - go here to see the shows in their entirety and go here to read a brilliantly british review of the london live 8 show.

[music | david bowie, "i'm afraid of americans"]