The Final Victory Goes to Great Big Sea

I owe Great Big Sea a great big apology.

For us Vancouverites, the past two weeks have been a blur of events, ceremonies, celebrations, street parties, houseguests, lineups and mayhem. It’s been fun. At times it’s been exhausting.

When the Barenaked Ladies took their final bows at last Monday’s Victory Celebration, I was relieved. Their performance was one of the highlights of my year as I cheered the rebirth of a great Canadian band, complete with the Fabulous Four logo on the drumkit (in case any of us should make the mistake that they are somehow less now that Steven Page has moved off into obscurity).

Nelly Furtado was the hometown crowd’s dream entertainer and made being British Columbian seem like a magical thing. The Guess Who might only have one tired old song, but they had us cheering along with every “Mama let me be”. INXS brought back Canadian reality show winner and fan favourite JD Fortune for what might be a lasting (or not) reunion. Even foreigners Stereophonics managed to capture the energy of the city, despite leaving out their signature “Long Way Round” (hey we Canucks watch Ewan and Charlie too!)

But one fact has remained true through each of the Victory Celebrations I’ve attended over these past two weeks. Most of the 30,000+ attendees are teammates, coaches, families, friends and countrymen of medal recipients, and they’re there for the athletes. I’m not complaining - this is entirely as it should be. There’s an amazing energy and feeling of goodwill that comes over you as you watch someone realize a lifelong dream. But it is a bit unfortunate for the bands that follow, because by 7:15, most of the attendees and their medals are heading for the exit signs.

The bands have handled it gracefully, although I imagine it must be a bit disheartening to watch your audience dwindling away as more and more blue seats appear out of the darkness. With his usual humour and good nature, the Barenaked Ladies Ed Robertson managed to gloss over the obvious stampede, reflecting on the pink and yellow outfits of the Germans (ye gads), the general insanity of Vancouver’s streets and the disappointment faced by those in the international audience who had turned up looking for naked ladies.

When I heard Great Big Sea was on tap for the final Victory Ceremony celebration, I worried. Putting aside the fact that Canada would be playing their most important hockey game of the tournament to that point (save the ‘possible’ gold medal game), or that it was the final Friday night of the greatest Canadian binge of all time, or that we would be on track to win four medals that day, I didn’t believe Great Big Sea’s brand of entertainment would hold this highly critical international crowd. I anticipated that, like the rest of the entertainers, the audience would start to dwindle after the medals were awarded and as the hockey game reached its big climax.

I was wrong.

From start to finish, the majority of the audience stayed. They stood. They sang. They danced. The Russians were doing some sort of clogging routine down to my left. A little Japanese girl and her mom were dancing in the flat area at the top of the first level stairs. The Chinese were using their bronze medals to loudly and somewhat violently toast one another. The US athletes on the concourse were trying to figure out how to chant “U-S-A” in place of ‘fare thee well’. The normally reserved Norwegians were fist-pumping to Excursion Around the Bay.

It was a win.

In fact, of all the Victory Ceremonies in these past two weeks, it was the biggest win.

Vancouverites were looking for an opportunity to express the joy and exuberance these Games have brought to our province. Great Big Sea gave us what we wanted and in doing so outplayed, outperformed and outshone every other act that had taken the same stage. They pushed energy, tempo and excitement into the heavy concrete of BC place and made it vibrate with energy and joy. There’s nothing wrong with being the world’s greatest party band when you’re the centre of the world’s greatest party.

Well done Great Big Sea. Our athletes may have owned the podium, but you owned the stadium.