Kim Mitchell entertained me for a good chunk of my life, both as frontman for Max Webster (in concert a few times) and as a solo act (saw him many times). By this time - in 1984, I believe, I had only seen him twice, once with Max and once solo at another hometown nightclub. This evening's gig was in support of his Akimbo Alogo album, which eventually went on to reach platinum sales status.
We were treated to the new tunes, and many of his Max classics, on that warm summer evening. Mitchell rocked the house down, blasting out his good-time party music for the revelers crammed into the little bar at The First, a rickety club on the outskirts of Orillia, Canada.
Mitchell's super-tight backup band hit all the right notes, hammering out every song like there was no tomorrow. Especially hot that night was bassist Peter Fredette, who showed off his pipes when he joined in on vocals on several tunes.
It was especially cool to hear the handful of songs from Kim's first solo effort "Kim Mitchell", a mini-EP that seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. It was never released on CD, but glory day, a few years back, some kind soul digitized his vinyl record and gave a copy to me. At this show, the crowd went wild for the EP's songs "Kids In Action", "Miss Demeanor", "Big Best Summer", "Tennessee Water", and "Chain of Events".
New hits like Go For Soda, That's A Man, and Lager And Ale got everyone in the mood for more suds. When Mitchell whipped out some Max Webster riffs, he really lifted the roof off the joint. Here Among The Cats is one of my favourite Max tunes, along with Beyond The Moon, Lip Service, The Party, Gravity, Paradise Skies, and Check. Even though I don't remember details of this evening (I celebrated quite a bit!), I'm positive these classics were on the setlist.
At another earlier gig (at The Pav in Orillia) I even snagged two of Kim's guitar picks right off his mic stand before leaving that night - really nice souvenirs! The picks and newspaper ad for the show appear below.
What an amazing showman! Mitchell has toured relentlessly for years, honing his musical skills to a "T", not to mention his fun and friendly "drinking buddy" on-stage banter. A working musician through-and-through, Mitchell has definitely earned his stripes as one of Canada's best-loved rockers.
Within the next year or so, I caught Kim Mitchell yet again, this time at Spanky's, a club in Brampton, Canada. Another terrific show! The "I'd rather go for soda" bottle cap button and the ticket stub pictured below were from that evening. And I saw him again and again and again after moving to Ottawa, still within the province of Mitchell's birth. He loved to give his home province fans plenty of face time, great PR guy that he was.
Souvenirs of the good old days....
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