The Juno Awards: Been There, Done That

OK, so it was pretty good. Not life-changing or anything, but very enjoyable.

We got to the Metro Centre around 7 pm, and had a bit of a stroll as I wanted to see what kind of crowd the show had brought out. I don't think many locals had made a particular attempt to be stylish - I did see some sharp outfits on people, but I suspect they were mostly Come From Aways. Ah well, Halifax isn't known as a fancy town.

By 7.30, they started broadcasting from the red carpet outside on the big video screens all around the arena, and by that point we were in our seats up in the gods (three rows from the back!). Note to self - never buy tickets for the Upper Bowl of the Metro Centre again. We could see the whole stage (barely), but our view of the screens on the other side of the arena was obstructed. Still, in this case, beggars couldn't be choosers.

I'd never been part of a live TV broadcast before, so it was actually kinda neat peering at the backstage area through my opera glasses, watching all the techs during the show working furiously to get things ready for each act. And there were screens everywhere, so that everyone could tell when the broadcast had gone to commercials and when we were about to go live again - at which point we were all expected to resume hollering. This last point was especially important, apparently, as this year the Junos are being broadcast internationally for the very first time. Imagine! They're to be shown on MTV2 in the US, and on VH1 in Europe and Australasia.

Pamela Anderson's 'hosting' duties (which consisted mainly of posing and giggling in a variety of skimpy outfits) were mercifully kept to a minimum, with local Mount Uniacke boy Buck 65 serving as MC for the evening. As a PETA stooge, however, Pam couldn't resist dropping a few lame anti-seal hunt 'jokes' into her script, which went down like a lead balloon with the audience - she was roundly booed. But later in the show, while presenting the last award of the evening with Brad Gushue (Newfoundland's first Olympic gold medalist, for curling in Torino), the always-outspoken Jann Arden got the best reaction of the evening when she announced, "I'd like you all to know that my brassiere is made entirely of seal eyelid." I don't think Jann likes Pam very much. Heh. Controversy!

Performance of the Night? Probably Coldplay, mainly because the crowd went completely nuts when they came onstage. They definitely got the most frenzied response of the evening. They performed "Talk" quite respectably...though the entire time I was watching Chris Martin bounce around the stage like a demented baboon, I kept thinking of Liam Gallagher noting that he looks less like a rock star and more like a "f***ing geography teacher". 'Tis true.

Personal Fave Performance? Broken Social Scene, who were their usual disorganised mess on stage but done good nonetheless. And Leslie Feist played with them! (Found out later that at the show they did Saturday night at the Forum, both Feist and Amy Millan from Stars joined them on stage! Dammit, why didn't I get my butt there?!? *grumbles*) Oh yeah, and they won Alternative Album of the Year, which was cool.

Most Underwhelming Performance? Well, Massari and his flygirls were pretty bad. But the award would have to go to the Black-Eyed Peas. Given their general popularity, I figured they'd blow the roof off the place, but it was not to be. I suspect this was because they played more towards the TV cameras than the audience.

That freakin' tune by Bedouin Soundclash, "When the Night Feels My Song", drives me bonkers (mainly because whenever I hear it, I always think of that Zellers commercial it's in - never a good thing). But their performance was perfectly competent and had the crowd singing along. There's no denying it's a catchy tune. I suspect these guys will be one-album wonders, though.

Jeez, people like Michael Bublé, don't they? I mean, they really like him. He won three of the seven awards given out last night, and grown women all around me shrieked whenever his name was uttered. It's a mystery to me.

Nickelback...ah yes, Nickelback. Their lead singer is as craggy-looking in real life as he appears on telly. Very popular, won several awards, garnered much 'lurve' from the audience, had crazy rock'n'roll plumes of fire and pyrotechnics during their performance. Whoo, and also hoo. [/sarcasm]

Bryan Adams (as introduced by Chris Martin) was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame partway through the evening. Which, given his international stature and shedloads of records sold, is a pretty well-deserved honour, I guess. I actually don't mind some of his earlier stuff (though his musical credibility nosedived steeply after that wretched Robin Hood song, in my opinion), so we anticipated he'd do a good medley, spanning his career. I was looking forward to a few bars of "This Time", "Cuts Like A Knife", and even "Summer of '69". But no, all we got was one song - the odious "18 Till I Die". A bizarre choice, to say the least.

Anyway, one can, if so inclined, view all the performances online (for now) at the CTV website.

Oh, and another good thing? The whole evening, we heard not a note of screechy fiddle or bagpipe music, or any other twee Nova Scotia rubbish. Excellent.