February 4, 2014 – What a show! Dreamer played everything a Supertramp fan could possibly want to hear and did it all very well. The band produced an unforgettable, tight, and very well presented live performance. It took no time at all for the audience to get involved. They are so much more than just a tribute band – they’re a group of musician’s musicians!
Editorial Interlude: We recorded some video of the show and interspersed it in the band’s interview (see below). Our YouTube channels have millions of views and dozens and dozens of bands live performances (both original band and covers/tributes). We have put up 2 Supertramp videos from their show at the Molson Amphitheater a couple of years ago and got dinged for copyright infringement. Today we put up the video of Dreamer covering Supertramp songs in the interview video and got dinged again. The notice was “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Evergreen Social Media Associates.” In short Supertramp or its record company is the absolute lamest band involved in the digital age. They are trying to control the distribution of their music (even covers) on YouTube and are legitimately showing that whomever is making that decision is a relic of a bygone era. Instead of thanking people like us for spreading knowledge and promotion of their music we get dinged with some BS warning and had to go through YouTube copyright training school. Anyways just so you know, DO NOT UPLOAD ANY SUPERTRAMP MUSIC OR LIVE FOOTAGE ON YOUTUBE this copyright infringement stuff is just ridiculous and the last thing we want to deal with as a website that makes no money at all and does this as a hobby. FU Supertramp (or your record company) and get with the times. Rant over. Now watch the interview without the music please ;-)
The show started with the band playing the entire 1974 release, Crime of the Century, and finished up with a number of unforgettable Supertramp songs .
Dreamer consists of:
Rich Hamelin (Davies vocals, keyboards/piano) Luc Murphy (Sax, Clarinet, Flute, backup vocals) Luc Caron (Guitar, wind instruments) Matthew Coull (Keys, Organ) Sylvain Marcoux (Bass) Nancy Harper (Vocals, Percussion) Philippe Lemay (Drums) Phil Naro (Hodgson vocals)
We saw the band last year at The Rockpile and gave an extensive review of the night. In order to avoid repetition we suggest you read that review found here for full details on the band.
The harmonica and melodic parts were amazing, as were Murphy’s sax parts. Hamelin was in good voice and played his keyboards extraordinarily well. The entire experience was spellbinding!
As usual Phil Naro was his superb self and was sounding eerily similar to Roger Hodgson. Naro has consistently proven to be a world class rock vocalist and we have seen him perform dozens of times the last few years. If you are into rock and live in Toronto do yourself a favour and follow Naro on Twitter or Facebook and find out when he is playing next and be prepared to be blown away.
I left the show with a huge smile on my face and have been humming the songs for days now. Next time the band is performing, go and see them, you will not be disappointed.
It was fun to watch and hear a group of professional musicians who take the reproduction of Supertramp’s classic hits extremely seriously.
Favourite moment: The whole show was very, very good! Excellent musicians added to the performance!
It should be noted that that there were no backing tracks. Everything was live! Hamelin even uses a Wurlitzer on stage! Probably the only Supertramp tribute band to do so.
The Set List:
Crime of the Century:
-
School
- Bloody Well Right
- Hide in your Shell
- Asylum
- Dreamer
- Rudy
- If Everyone Was Listening
- Crime of the Century
Second Set:
- Fools Overture
- Give a Little Bit
- Even in the Quietest Moments
- Sister Moonshine
- The Logical Song
- Take the Long Way Home
- Breakfast in America
Encore;
- It’s Raining Again
- Goodbye Stranger
