Who knew you needed sunglasses to go to a concert?

Our Lady Peace played a free concert Friday at the Air Canada Centre, sponsored by Best Buy. Tickets were given out through local media, Best Buy stores, and staff handing out tickets around the city.

There was no doubt that the true Our Lady Peace fans managed to pick up the tickets. The thousands of devotees partook in ?OLP? chants and an arena-sized wave, something usually seen at a baseball game, not a concert. The ambiance was intense and it only increased when the band members took the stage.

From the moment the unmistakable voice of Raine Maida burst onto the speakers with ?All For You,? the crowd stood up, and their legs rarely took a break.

A mix of songs from all their albums was in the set list, including hits like ?Superman,? ?Starseed,? and ?Clumsy.?

After playing ?Somewhere,? Maida asked for the houselights to be turned on. The music of ?4AM? played, and Maida kept silent, except for asking the crowd to sing, which they did for the entire song.

Maida made a point to thank the fans. ?You can?t put into words what it?s like to have this kind of audience in our home town where we grew up and watched other bands play,? he told the audience.

They didn?t play one of their hits, ?Life,? except for one verse mixed in with ?Naveed.? ?Are You Sad? was performed, a rare live song for the band to play.

Their set had different coloured lights facing the band members, one or two different rotating colours per song. They also had extremely bright lights facing the audience. Blinking was unavoidable. In one song, the lights went off every four beats, making it very difficult to focus on the stage and not turn away.

The only complaint is that it seemed Our Lady Peace didn?t take advantage of the arena conditions, and their show appeared better fit for a club venue. There were two big screens surrounding the stage that went unused. The backdrop was simply a black banner baring the band?s name. There was little stage movement, but Maida did walk into the audience during one song, followed closely by a swarm of security guards.

Treble Charger and Noise Therapy opened.






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