Blue Rodeo celebrates 30 years in July with marathon show at Leon’s Centre in Kingston

Regardless of where your musical preferences fall on the spectrum I can almost bet that every Canadian is familiar with Blue Rodeo. First established in 1984 by Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, October 26, 2023 marks the 30th anniversary of Five Days in July, the band’s firth and most commercially successful album, it has been certified six times platinum as of 2008. What better way to celebrate than with a tour and a, nearly, 3 hour party?

The show, split into two sets, featured a live playthrough of the entire Five Days in July album plus a second set of some of their greatest hits. Now I’ve personally seen Blue Rodeo close to, if not just over, 20 times over the course of their career…heck they even came and played at my high school reunion so it’s fair to say I’m a bit of a fan. I’ve seen then twice in 2023 alone, first at Kemptville Live Music Festival in July and then again on Saturday. Out of all of the shows I’ve seen the two in 2023 were among the best I have seen to date. The Saturday night show added a whole new element which pushed it over the top, for me, and that was the addition of guest vocalist Melissa McClelland, of Whitehorse.

The show ran for about 2 hours and 45 minutes, as with most shows from bands that have 16 albums there were many songs I wish could’ve made the setlist but 23 made for an incredible show and still left plenty of time for the signature, mid show, band introduction Lee Hazelwood cover “The Railroad” which gives each member of the band the opportunity to solo.

There were so many highlights on Saturday night it’s hard to pick just one but there were definitely a few stand out moments for me, both of which involve McClelland. First was for “Dark Angel” where her vocals made the song even more powerful and second was right at the end during “Lost Together” when McClelland took on the vocals with Greg. For 31 years I’ve been so accustomed to hearing Greg and Jim on that track but switching it up to a female vocal really worked well and added a whole new element to the song.

Blue Rodeo will celebrate 40 years as a band next year so I guess a 4 hour show is in order as part of the celebration, I still don’t think it would be enough to hear all the favourites. These guys are a staple in Canadian music, country, rock, blues, folk they bring it all to their shows. It’s great to see a band continue to grow and add new elements after nearly 4 decades.

If you missed the show in Kingston on Saturday you’ll have another chance to catch them in Eastern Ontario as they hit the Empire Theatre in Belleville October 17 & 18 before the tour heads out to Eastern Canada for shows in Moncton, Halifax and Glace Bay for tickets to these and to see newly announced Ontario shows for December visit https://tour.bluerodeo.com/

If you’ve never seen Blue Rodeo live go and see this tour, if you have…go and see this tour. I can see Blue Rodeo time and time again and the music and stories just don’t get old.

More Photos