Defining the energetic spirit of Newfoundland and celebrating 20 years together in 2013, multi-award-winning group, Great Big Sea will perform at Casino New Brunswick’s Event Centre in Moncton on Thursday, April 25 at 8 pm.
Twenty years is a long time in anyone’s life. Few bands last more than an album or two but Alan Doyle, Sean McCann and Bob Hallett have somehow managed to keep the dysfunctional-family-bar-room-brawl-student-art-project-musical- pirate-crew known as Great Big Sea going for two decades. And more often than not, they have done it with more than a bit of flair.
For the hundreds of thousands of fans who have sang, danced and celebrated with the band, Great Big Sea has been a constant factor in their own lives. While musical fashions have come and gone, Great Big Sea has maintained an unswerving commitment to their original ideals — a belief that a marriage of their own creativity and the joyous folk music of their home in Newfoundland would be an unbeatable combination.
On October 30, Great Big Sea will release, XX, a special two-disc set that captures the many highs in a recording career that has produced 10 full-length CDs and two DVDs. In order to express the band’s two sides, one disc covers the biggest hits from their more pop-oriented repertoire, while the other contains some of their most loved traditional and folk songs. To balance out the discs, the band recorded six new songs — almost a new album in itself — which run the gamut of their varied stylistic approach.
The XX box set that accompanies this release is packed with bonus material that both the casual and truly committed fan will enjoy. Beyond the two-disc greatest hits collection, it includes another disc that contains some of the band’s lesser known excursions and experiments. Over a 20-year career the band has sometimes gone astray, and these embryonic ideas and missteps will be fascinating to all those who have followed the band’s varied journey. Another audio disc features one of the band’s first interviews, recorded in the fall of 1993 for CBC St. John’s, which includes rare and unheard songs from the band’s earliest days.
The box also contains a special book covering the many ups and downs of their career, along with lyrics, stickers, and a calendar covering a year in the band’s life. True fans are eagerly awaiting the set’s DVD, which contains a movie edited together by McCann. Containing a wealth of early interviews, backstage foolishness and general craziness, it captures the madness of the band’s first few years, but without the bruises, bad food and hangovers of the real thing.
For more information on Great Big Sea, visit: www.greatbigsea.com
Tickets for the Moncton show go on sale this Friday, October 26 at 10 am. Tickets for the show start at $29.99 (plus tax and applicable surcharge) and are available at the Casino Gift Shop (located at 21 Casino Drive in Moncton, exit #450 off the Trans-Canada Highway), by calling 1-866-9-GET-TIX/ 1-866- 943-8849 and online at casinonb.ca
Doors open at 7 pm.
Casino New Brunswick is a full-service casino, event centre, hotel and spa. It features over 550 slot machines, 20 gaming tables, (including a private poker room with five tables), as well as a variety of restaurants and lounges. In addition to its luxurious hotel and spa with 126 rooms and suites, the complex also offers a multi-purpose entertainment centre. The Centre presents events year-round and since opening its doors on May 4th, 2010, the venue has hosted several sold-out shows in its 2500-seat concert venue. Casino New Brunswick is wheelchair accessible and features extensive car and RV parking.
For more information on Casino New Brunswick’s upcoming shows, visit: casinonb.ca
