THUNDER BAY – Chris de Burgh has kept the art of the troubadour alive and well, centuries after the wandering minstrel spinning musical tales went out of fashion.
A poet at heart, the British-Irish crooner rocketed to stardom in the 1970s and 1980s with chart-topping soft-rock singles that found appeal around the world.
On Monday night he brought his act to the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium, where an appreciative Thanksgiving crowd of about 700 gathered to watch the soon-to-be 69-year-old de Burgh take them on a journey throughout his four-decade career.
Playing to sell-out shows elsewhere on his A Better World Tour, another artist might have dialed it in, the house half empty in front of him.
Not de Burgh.
“I have to say it hasn’t escaped my attention it isn’t exactly a full house,” he said, glancing over the crowd.
“But instead of cutting back we’re going to give you the best show we’ve got.”
It’s a show de Burgh and his band – keyboardist Nigel Hopkins, bassist Dave Levy, drummer Phil Groyssboeck and guitarist Neil Taylor – have down pat.
They’ve stuck to the same set-list more or less throughout the tour, and why not?
Opening with Bethlehem, the second song on his 2016 album A Better World, he blazed through a 12-song first set that included hits like Ship to Shore, Spanish Train and A Spaceman Came Traveling, stopping to chat with the crowd from time to time.
Early in the show he thanked his Canadian audience for their support during his early years, giving him the courage to continue on.
He also thanked the Americans in the crowd, giving them a message to take home.
“Maybe have a little word with your guy who does all the tweeting,” said de Burgh, who spent most of the opening half of the show glued to the microphone, his guitar strapped around his neck, dancing an Irish jig ahead of The Open Door, the set finale.
Along the way he gave shout-outs to the Sleeping Giant, Terry Fox and Caribou Restaurant, which he deemed the best eatery in Canada.
After a short intermission de Burgh was back, a little more lively and ready to please.
“Any requests?” he asked, the audience shouting out a plethora of options, most of them obvious choices.
He chose The Tower, from 1975’s Spanish Train and Other Stories, and 1977’s In a Country Churchyard, asked for by a fan he met while walking around the city.
The show hit its climax minutes later with the arrival of The Lady in Red, his smash 1984 single that saw him descend upon the audience, greeting female fans as he wandered through the crowd. He followed with a cover of Toto’s Africa, for which he invited the audience to dance with him in front of the stage. Most stayed the rest of the show, which included a raucous version of Don’t Pay the Ferryman and High on Emotion.
The two-song encore arrived with a warning.
“I know you’re probably anxious to get home and get into bed … so I’ll leave you with a nice, quiet bedtime story my grandmother used to sing to me,” he said.
Out popped Patricia the Stripper, the bawdy song that teenagers who came of age in the mid-‘70s listened to when their uptight parents weren’t around.
He closed with Go Where Your Heart Believes, promising one day to return.
