The show opened with an introductory video of the Abbotsford, B.C. quartet Jacob Hoggard, Dave Rosin, Chris Crippin and Tommy MacDonald waking up shipwrecked on a shore. The video continued by showing the band walking down a highway with a sign marked “Ottawa 2 km,” which got the crowd screaming with excitement.
Hedley kicked off the night by performing a mashup of a few songs off their first, self-titled record, which included their singles “321,” “On My Own,” and “Streetfight.” The band proved their true showmanship on stage. “When I say oh! You say yeah!” Hoggard instructed the crowd. He got the crowd to sing, dance, wave their arms, and scream as the audience copied his every move.
An energetic Hoggard ran and pirouetted around stage. Rosin, the band’s guitarist, and MacDonald, the bassist, constantly ran from one side of the stage to another while Crippin played an extreme drum solo.
The band played for nearly two hours and their set included songs from all four of their albums: Hedley, Famous Last Words, The Show Must Go, and Storms. They also played some unreleased songs only true Hedley fans were able to sing along to.
A highlight of the evening was Hedley’s performance of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” — a tribute to Hoggard’s infamous performance during the second season of Canadian Idol in 2004.
When the band wasn’t running around stage, Hoggard sat behind his bright red piano and played ballads such as “Perfect,” “For the Nights I Can’t Remember,” “Heaven’s Gonna Wait,” and “Stormy.” These moments made for a more relaxed and romantic environment.
To add to the nautical theme of the concert, the band returned to the television screen with a short skit of them fishing on a boat. As the video finished, the band appeared on stage wearing yellow rain jackets and sat in a metal boat.
“It’s so nice to be out here on beautiful Lake Ottawa,” Hoggard said.
While sitting on the boat, the band played a few songs and asked the crowd to take out their cellphones, lighters and glow sticks in order to “light this boat home.”
As Hoggard thanked the crowd for coming out, he also quoted lyrics from their song “I Won’t Let You Go.”
“Remember Ottawa, ‘You gotta go away if you wanna come back,’” he said.
After receiving four Juno nominations, the band will be back in Ottawa April 1st for the 2012 Juno Awards.
