On a night that my camera was breathing it’s last breath – These are the last photos taken with my beloved Pentax SF-1, the camera that started it all a mere five years ago. What happened to it? I don’t know. I had tried to shoot a gig about an hour before the Junkies, but when I went to load a film, the shutter was sitting out of place and the motor was stuck. I went over to the Commodore to inform them I wouldn’t be able to shoot that night, but ended up giving it a run anyhow, and wouldn’t you know, the camera cooperated. For one roll, one rather perfect roll. And as I left the front of the stage after the show, the camera mechanism jammed again, and that was the last of it. Irreparable. Parts no longer available. Poor thing.

So preoccupied was I with this issue that I missed many of the nuances of the Cowboy Junkies. Here, however, is what I did notice. There were vases of flowers on the stage. There was a skirt that matched the flowers. There was a backdrop. There was an accordion and a lot of softness. This was their acoustic set. Later they played a plugged-in set, which I missed. Margo Timmins’ voice is sultry, storyteller-like, as she sat perched on a stool crooning away. Her hair sits over her face almost like a security blanket. And between some songs, she told us this, which is one of the best things I’ve ever heard between songs ever. She talked about being on tour around the world constantly. “No matter where we go, we’re always asked why we’re so sad and depressed. I try to explain that we’re not depressed. We’re just Canadian.”

Elsewhere

By Andy Scheffler
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : January 2005.