Gowan At MTelus

We're a little bit backed up on getting my concert photographs up here on The Old Blog.  I suppose we will catch up at some point, but this would be a good time to remind you that my concert photographs can be seen in a much more timely manner by visiting V13Media, which you can do by following the link.  If you'd like an even more direct route to my photographs, you can visit my personal page over there but using the following link.  “Like sand through the hour glass, so are the days of our lives.”  I would hear that phrase every weekday afternoon at 1:00PM while staying with my grandparents over the summer.  Grammie liked her stories, but that phrase has taken on new meaning.  The sands of my own hourglass continue to run, something I was reminded of this past Tuesday night.  Gowan was at the MTelus in Montreal as part of a brief Canadian tour. That tour would be to celebrate the 40^th Anniversary of his landmark album, Criminal Mind.  Yes, 40^th Anniversary.  The number just doesn’t compute.  It seems only like it was yesterday that we first got to see the video for “A Criminal Mind”, while having snacks after school and watching Video Hits on CBC.  Mother Nature and Father Time make for a very formidable duo.  Both have a way of sneaking up on your when you least expect it.  Though this was a seated concert, there was still a buzz of energy going through the building.  Even the fans up in the balcony were rising to their feet in anticipation.  Before hitting the stage, a brief video retrospective was played.  40 years of great music flashed before our eyes before the lights went out and Gowan hit the stage.  “Awake The Giant” got the night off to a rocking start.  Gowan split his time behind his signature keyboard and walking the stage, acknowledging his fans along the way.  He broke out a beautifully painted guitar for “Dancing On My Own Ground” while also chatting with the crowd.  His is an admittedly broken French, but the crowd didn’t mind at all.  Very much happy with the effort being shown.  He shared a memory of first playing the smaller Théâtre St. Denis in early 1985.  Later that year, after the great success of Strange Animal, he was suddenly headlining the legendary Montreal Forum.  A brief mention of his time with Styx led to the instrumental piece, “Khedive”.  The concert was also a bit of a family event, as Gowan's own son Dylan playing the drums and his brother Terry on bass.  What an awesome experience that must be for everyone involved.   After that, the rest of this unforgettably awesome evening was dedicated to Strange Animal.  It's such a great album and was a treat to get to hear the tracks played live together.  From “Cosmetics” all the way through to “A Criminal Mind”, the crowd, and Gowan himself, partied like it was once again 1985.  Gowan brought the show to an end with another of his big hits, “Moonlight Desires”, at which point Father Time returned to remind us that is was 2025 as we shuffled off in to the night, waiting for another new day to arrive.  All of the photographs were taken at f/3.2 while using various different shutter speeds, ISO settings and focal lengths.  Here are the rest of the photographs that I took of Gowan while he performed on the MTelus stage.

If you would like to find out more about Gowan and his music, you can do so by following the link to his website.  If you would like to see the photographs that I took of Sofia Duhaime, who performed earlier that night, you can do so by following the link.  Many thanks goes out to Gowan's management group at Red Light Management, Evenko and Christopher Gonda at V13 Media for getting me a pass to photograph the show.  As usual, it is very much appreciated.  Gowan’s 40^th Anniversary of Strange Animal tour has come to an end, but there are a few more shows scheduled for early in 2026.  Don’t you dare miss it when it arrives in a town near you.