Jim Cuddy @ The Embassy, London, ON

Well, first of all let me begin by saying that the show itself was WONDERFUL!!!! Of course, I wasn't expecting anything less. :)

Jim seemed to be in such a great mood like he genuinely enjoyed playing with his "new" band, which consisted of Baz (who rules!) on bass, Anne Lindsay on fiddle, Colin Cripps on guitar and Gavin Brown on the drums (and of course Jim!)

Jim introduced the show by saying this was a first, that we were their first audience (woo hoo!) BTW, for all of you interested, he was wearing a black t-shirt (untucked but nice and *short* oink, oink), dark pants and the beaded necklace and his hair looked great, but I digress... :)

Given the opportunity to lead a show without his partner in crime, Jim seemed a lot more vocal and was joking around with the audience between almost every song. Speaking of songs, here's the setlist I snagged after the show.

Set #1
Second Son
Whistler
Too Many Hands
Trouble
Everybody Cries
5 Days in May
I'll Make Believe
New Year's Eve
Til I am Myself Again

Set #2
All in Time
Slide Through Your Hands
Oliver's Army (an Elvis Costello tune)
Baltimore (Baz sings this one)
Makin' My Way
Disappointment
Bad Timing
Trust Yourself

then the encore was Trouble, then another song (I can't remember which one) then Second Son.

Okay, so like I said, Jim was lot more talkative than he usually is... when he introduced Anne, his fiddle player, he mentioned that they went to Grade Seven together. :) And before a lot of the songs he joked around with us... here are some choice highlights.

-- He told the story about his daughter before Everybody Cries and elicited quite a few laughs from the audience especially when he mentioned that his daughter mentioned that the song sounded "hopeless"... his reaction? "Well, you're only ten years old, what do you know.. go write your own song!"

-- When the band left for a break between the first and second sets, Jim said they'd be back in ten minutes... well, it was a bit longer than ten minutes and I guess Jim sensed that it was too... so when he came back he said, "Was that longer than ten minutes?" Yeah, said we... "Well, I guess I lied..."

-- He dedicated Slide Through Your Hands to Mike Harris telling everyone the story about how the Ontario government made drinking on a golf cart legal the same day that they cut back the amount of time that an assaulted woman can stay in a shelter... to which he said, "Is that f*cked up or what?"

-- Just after that song, someone in the crowd yelled "BAZIL!'' And Jim replied, "Bazil this Bazil that! I've had it up to f*ckin' here with Bazil!... He's just a flesh and blood man for God's sake..." :)

-- Before Bad Timing started while Jim was putting on his harmonica, Colin Cripps took the mike into his own hands for the first time that night... "Are you guys having fun?" YEAH! "How we doin' on our first show?" WOOOO! By the time Colin finished with that, Jim had had a chance to finish with the harmonica and grab a sip of water, so he looked over at Colin and said, "Thanks, man!" :)

-- When the band came back for the encore, Jim brought it to our attention that, "We have a problem... a problem I haven't had in twelve years... we've run out of songs! So we're just going to play the same ones again... like it matters to you guys, you've never heard them before so it doesn't make a damn bit of difference!" As they were starting the song, Jim took to the mike again, "We're going to play them with renewed attitude!"

After the show, Jim was standing in the lobby (?) of the venue and just briefly chatted with the mob surrounding him... and signed a few of the posters that the Embassy had used to promote the show. What I didn't realize until Jim had escaped from the mob and gone upstairs was that the picture that was on the poster promoting the show WAS THE PICTURE I'D TAKEN OF JIM IN CHATHAM!!!! AKA the pic that appears on the main page of SA's website. Needless to say I was more than a little pissed off at the fact that the venue had stolen my picture ultimately for the purpose of making money from Jim's show. Well, after I'd calmed down a bit, I decided that I'd have to have a little talk with Jim (hehehe) just to bring it to his attention and make sure that he had nothing to do with it... of course I was 99% sure that he didn't have any idea about it, but hey, you've got to start somewhere right? So I waited patiently downstairs after Baz told us that he was coming down in a few minutes. Well, a few minutes turned into about 45 minutes while Shelagh, Heather, Julie, Brenda, Christina, Sharon and I waited (thanks for putting up with me guys...). After I'd decided that we'd waited long enough (and the security guy who was guarding the stairs wandered off) I slowly went upstairs (with second, third and fourth thoughts all the way up). Well, I found Jim sitting and talking with Anne (the fiddle player) and I apologized for bothering them, but I had something to tell him, I had a beef... he said that it was okay and what was my beef? Okay at this point, I think it would be easier to switch over to dialogue mode... :) It's not verbatim, but it's a close approximation.

JC: What's your beef?

me: Well, I have a problem with the posters that the club was using to promote the show... I took the picture that they used and they never asked permission.

JC: How did they get your picture?

me [and Heather :) ] They stole it from my friend's website.

JC: How did they steal it?

me: They just downloaded it and added a few graphics and photocopied it...

JC: You took the picture? When?

me: I took it outside at the Chatham show back in February...

JC: Well, why are you coming to me? You should probably talk to the owners of the club [duh, Jim, I wanted to talk to you! :) ] I had a contract with the club to play a show. I played the show, thereby fulfilling my contract and now that my contract is over, I no longer have any affiliation with the club...

[Okay, I know that out of context this makes me look really stupid, but I didn't care, because I was having a conversation with Jim!!! And he was saying all of this with a smile on his face...]

me: Well, I understand that, but I just thought that you should know... I didn't think you had anything to do with it...

JC: It is cool that they used your picture though...

me: Not really, because they didn't ask permission... it's MY picture...

JC: But they got it from the Internet, so do you still have ownership rights?

me: I own the negative...

JC: But when you post it up on the Internet, it becomes public, because the 'Net is a public commune [those were exact words!] and I don't think you have legal rights to it anymore...

me: Well, I should...

JC: Oh well... I don't think you do...

me: Mmm, well, I think I'm going to have a chat with the owners then... thanks anyways... great show by the way... can you sign this [the setlist]?

JC: Sure, no problem...

[I hand him a Sharpie and he signs Heather's and my setlists]

me: Thanks again for a great show and sorry to have bothered you...

I started walking out when I heard him say:

Hey wait, whose is this [the Sharpie]?

me: Oh, it's mine, thanks...

JC [with the *cutest* look on his face]: Well, I wouldn't want to *steal* it...

me (blushing): Thanks! :)

HAHAHAHAHA!!! Well, that's my story... if I didn't look like a total doorknob, at least I got to talk to Jim.