He came, he thrilled the audience, and then he left. But not for long.
Johnny Reid, crooner and entertainer extraordinaire, performed his second show in Bonnyville in two weeks at the Flint Field House on Oct. 8.
The double sellout performances, at nearly 1,700 tickets per show, make Reid's concerts one for the history books at the C2.
The second Bonnyville show merited another noteworthy mention, as it was the last show of the first half of his “A Place Called Love” tour.
He played crowd-pleasers “That Man Is Me,” “Let's Go Higher,” and “Dance with Me,” and included tracks from both previous records and the recently released, A Place Called Love. The audience showed approval with standing ovations at various points in the show.
Reid engaged the audience with a conversational tone throughout the night. He stopped to tell stories and jokes, and gave the nod to local country singer Bret Kissel.
Reid complimented Kissel by saying he did a wonderful job representing the community. Kissel and Reid played the CCMA Fanfest in Edmonton in September along with a list of other country music favourites.
The audience even thought Kissel would be joining Reid on stage for a moment, rousing cheers and applause. But it was only Reid playing with the audience, which doted on the artist's every word during the 90-minute, nonstop performance.
The 10-piece band, including two backup singers and three wind instruments, looked like they had as great a time as Reid himself. At one point the sax player belted out a solo while flat on his back from the top of the staircase. A fiddler joined Reid on stage for “Right out of the Blue.” The singers, for the most part, danced overtop the drums, up a set of metallic stairs on both sides of the rhythm section.
Two kilted bagpipers joined Reid onstage for “Today I'm Gonna Try and Change the World.” Reid also slowed the set down with a three-piece acoustic group, which included a verse of the song “My Girl.”
He finished the performance with another standing ovation. But, like the first show wasn't enough for Bonnyville, the audience quickly summoned Reid back to the stage. He sung “Thank You” with piano accompaniment, after which he took off his white tie and gave it to a lucky audience member at the front.
For the final song he brought back the opening act The Stellas and the pipers, as well as one lucky youngster, the second of the night, to receive a T-shirt and sing with Reid on stage as he closed the night.
