The Bell Centre welcomed pop fans from all over town last Monday for an exceptional night for the Native Tour, featuring OneRepublic and Lights.
The show started around 7:30pm, when a good third of the venue was still empty. Canadian electropop artist Lights got on stage and opened up with the hit “Peace Sign”, taken from the album Siberia. As soon as she started her performance we could already tell she is a talented artist, with a powerful voice and a capability to easily reach the high notes. She continued her set with the song “Toes”, from the same album. She definitely got on us on our toes with her energetic performance, and the audience definitely wanted her to keep going! The show went on with the great “Siberia”, a song about “being happy where you are” as the artist tells the crowd. Lights had so much energy during the song, jumping all over the place. The following song was “Running with the boys”, a song about being a kid and enjoying the moment while you still can, taken from her third studio album entitled Little Machines. Her performance was flawless and the crowd was ready to sing every song, loving every line ‘til the night was gone!
The one chord song “Portal” was next, and made for a much quieter experience, letting us focus on the lyrics and on the emotion coming out of the song. It was the perfect ballad to show us her deeper side. The whole crowd used their phones as flashlights, as if constellations appeared in the venue. It was a magical moment that even gave the chills to Lights herself as she mentioned it on her Instagram account. After the songs “Muscle Memory” and “Banner”, Lights told us that she was already in Montreal about a year and a half ago, on that same stage but 6 months pregnant and admitted that it was really hard for her to put on a show that way. The last two songs of her set were “Same Sea” and “Up We Go”. The audience was really into those last two songs and starting to stand during it, as most people remained seated during most of her performance. The crowd wasn’t really as energetic as Lights, but people sang along and really seemed to enjoy her performance. It is however too bad that some people were only getting into the venue once she was done. 3/4 of the Bell Centre was full by the end of her set and dozens of people took advantage of the intermission to take selfies…
It was now time for probably the most trendy pop/rock sextet of the last few years to make their entrance on stage: OneRepublic! The whole crowd was standing and cheering as they were opening with one of the most straightforward rock songs from their latest album Native, “Don’t Look Down”. Hidden behind a curtain at first, we could see shadows appearing one after the other, changing to the rhythm of the song. The curtain ended up falling mid-song to reveal Ryan Tedder and the other band members.
They continued the beginning of the set with “Light It Up” and “Secrets”, during which bassist Brent Kutzle played cello in a delightful way. Next was “All The Right Moves”, from their 2009 album Waking Up, during which the frontman showed us he’s not only a great singer but also a talented pianist. Right after, he talked to the crowd in a pretty okay French, starting with “Bonsoir Montréal, comment ça va?” He mentioned that it was their first proper show here and that they believe that Montreal might be the coolest city in North America. He added that they’ll be back again and that so far it is the best show of this tour (pretty easy when we were only the 2nd date of the tour, but it’s always appreciated to hear that!).
The show went on will the song “What You Wanted” taken from their latest album followed by “Stop and stare”, with the background showing pictures of nature, and the audience using the flash of their phones to make the moment more magical like they did for Lights’ “Portal”. “Something I need” was Tedder’s attempt at an Irish pub. He ended up finishing the song in the middle of the crowd, taking a selfie (or a video?) with a fan’s phone. Right after that, the whole venue was in the dark for a quick intermission, featuring Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” and a Three Stooges video. The band appeared a few seconds later on the smaller floor stage in front of the main one, closer to the crowd. Tedder started an impressive intro to their hit song “Apologize” that the crowd sang along to from the top of their lungs.
The band didn’t only play original songs, they also covered some hits such as Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me”, George Ezra’s “Budapest” and even a standard at the end of the set: “Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong, in a really high pitched tone. All of that proving to us that Ryan Tedder is an artist that turns everything he touches into gold, whether it is with his voice, guitar, piano, or songwriting skills.
Another remarkable song of that night was “Preacher”, before which Tedder told us about his religious upbringing and his childhood in the south, where his grandparents were preachers. The last song on the smaller stage was “Good Life”. This one is one of my favourites songs from the band because of the meaning behind it: For those who don’t know it, it is basically the story about how the narrator feels blessed because of the places he’s travelled to and the experiences he has encountered. I was glad to see that the background was used as a story-teller for this song (and for every single song actually), where we could see pictures from all over the world, including a great video of Montreal, but also the Quebec flag! OneRepublic knew exactly how to win over the crowd’s hearts with it.
Guitarist Zach Filkins delighted us right after that with an unexpected and impressive Spanish classical guitar introduction to the song “Counting Stars”. The whole crowd was cheering during his performance and was definitely ready after that to fully enjoy the hit song. The next two songs, “Can’t Stop” and “Au Revoir”, taken from their latest album were much calmer, some people even started to sit during the latter to better enjoy it, despite Ryan Tedder grabbing one of those microphones that you can see on a boxing ring, giving a particular ambiance to the performance. During “Feel Again”, the frontman decided to come back in the middle of the crowd and ended up pretty close to me actually, with people taking videos of him and trying to take selfies as well. The last song before the encore was the really moving “I Lived”, inspiring us to push ourselves out of our comfort zone because that is where we will often find ourselves. The audience was enjoying that song more than ever, singing along and jumping to the rhythm of it.
As you might expect it, the fans wanted more than that… and OneRepublic delivered! They came back on stage wearing Canadiens jerseys for the last songs! Who in the audience wouldn’t love them after that, right? They started the encore with “Love Runs Out”, the whole crowd was really into it, so into it that when the frontman threw his towel in the audience at the end of the song, some fan girls almost fought for it in the first row!
After telling us that he might pass out during the next song because the jersey he was wearing was too hot and saying a highly treasured “Go Habs, Go!”, the band covered the Louis Armstrong standard that I previously mentioned. I love when bands cover great songs like this one during their shows to show their respect of the artist, proving that they’re people that have been inspired by others above all.
Unfortunately, there was only one song left at this point. Tedder took advantage of that to thank Lights for being part of the tour and announced that OneRepublic will be back soon with a new album, new songs and… new clothes. Don’t worry, I’m not quite sure why he said that either. They ended their set with the more electronic dance song “If I Lose Myself”, with confetti thrown all over the crowd for an explosive finish. With a last “Je t’aime, Montreal”, Tedder and his band left the main stage and made our hearts melt.
Setlist:
Don’t look down
Light it up
Secrets
All the right moves
What you wanted
Stop and Stare
Something I need
Apologize
Budapest
Preacher
Good life
Counting stars
Can’t stop
Au revoir
Feel again
I lived
Love Runs out
Wonderful World
If I lose myself
Review – Maxime Le Huidoux
Photos – Eva Blue
