Sam Roberts
Royal Theatre, Victoria, BC
October 22, 2011
Everyone was there to see Sam Roberts. But that wasn’t going to stop Zeus.
As the audience filed into the Royal Theatre’s gorgeous interior and took their seats, Zeus, a relatively new Toronto-based band, took to the stage sporting mustaches that Queen’s Freddie Mercury would be proud of.
The first chords of their set were the audience warm-up; while people took to their seats, their well-played but relatively standard indie/rock echoed through the theatre.
But once the venue was at capacity, everything changed. Zeus forewarned the audience that they were going to rock out; they surprised everyone by playing a two-part song that absolutely rocked out. Hard. Like something you’d expect to hear during Woodstock—it was an almost psychedelic rock experience. Lighters came out. People cheered. Zeus had won the audience over.
By the time the Sam Roberts Band took to the stage the audience wasn’t so much frenzied as outright hysterical. It might have been because the average age was likely in the teens in an audience dominated by young girls.
By the time Sam played “Fixed to Ruin” the Royal Theatre shook from either an earthquake or from an entire audience trying to dance—no small feat in such cramped quarters. This momentum carried on until Roberts slowed the energy down momentarily to play “Brother Down.”
Roberts charmed his audience like a total pro—a far cry from his first appearance in Victoria opening for the Tragically Hip nine years ago. Between songs he briefly reflected on how much of an opportunity that particular show (and tour) was for him and his band, telling a story about how Hip frontman Gord Downie came out to watch them play and gave a nod of approval partway through the set. From there, Sam Roberts broke out on the scene, winning multiple Junos multiple times and exploding into international stardom.
After the brief storytelling session ended Roberts got right back to it, playing a mix of material from throughout his career. By the time the encore finished with “Don’t Walk Away Eileen,” everyone in the theatre was drenched in sweat.
And that sweat is how you know the Sam Roberts Band delivered everything that their fans wanted. They all left with pleasantly exhausted expressions.
But the night didn’t just belong to Roberts. It’s quite possible that in nine years, Zeus will come back to Victoria to headline the Royal Theatre with someone we have yet to hear opening for them. And, nine years from now, they’ll be talking about this night with the same look in their eyes that Roberts had as he walked down memory lane.