THUNDER BAY - Before playing a single note, Paul Shaffer was welcomed back to Thunder Bay with a standing ovation.
The former musical director on The Late Show with David Letterman and local music legend returned to his hometown on Friday for a performance at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium.
This was Shaffer’s first show in Thunder Bay since the city named the street in front of the Auditorium in his honour more than ten years ago.
“I’ve owed this concert to you for a long time,” he told a packed house. “So thank you.”
Joining him on stage was the NYC Orchestra, or The World’s Most Dangerous Band, who performed alongside him on the Late Show for 22 years.
“This is the band who were in the trenches with me every night,” Shaffer said. “They are the wildest bunch of musicians.”
The nearly three hour show took the audience on a musical tour of industry greats and Shaffer’s own influences, from funk, to rock, to blues.
Shaffer recalled that when he was a young musician in Thunder Bay, he used to play at the Royal Edward Arms Hotel.
“That’s where I want to take you all now,” he said. “That’s why we returned here tonight. We’ll always be playing the D Room.”
The show kicked off with the James Brown classic, Gonna Have a Funky Good Time. Shaffer and the NYC Orchestra then went into a full-on tribute to James Brown, who Shaffer said was his favourite musical guest to appear on the Late Show.
“We’re still dancing to what James Brown did,” Shaffer said.
Bassist, Will Lee, took over the microphone for some of Brown’s biggest hits like Papa’s Gotta a Brand New Bag, It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World, and I’ll Go Crazy. Lee’s vocal tribute to Brown perfectly captured the funk legend’s own style and his energetic and lively thumping on the bass brought the funky riffs to life.
There were also covers of Living Colour’s hit Cult of Personality and These Eyes by Canadian rock legends, The Guess Who, who Shaffer saw perform at the Coliseum in Thunder Bay.
“It was life changing,” he said.
To start the second half of the show, Shaffer marched out on stage in a kilt and a set of bagpipes, much to the audience’s surprise and pleasure.
“You can take the boy out of the pipe band, but you can’t take the pipe band out of the boy,” Shaffer quipped.
Shaffer, who said he only picked up his own set of bagpipes two years ago, admitted that it is the hardest instrument to play. And while he did look a little awkward handling them at first, once he got going, Shaffer didn’t miss a beat and he was joined on stage by the entire MacGillivray Pipe Band of Thunder Bay.
This lead to Shaffer sharing stories of growing up in Thunder Bay, receiving his first piano lesson from his mother, the days with his first band, The Fabulous Fugitives, and then moving on to his time with Saturday Night Live, and a recording session with Donna Summer, which he called one of the greatest moments of his life.
Shaffer then did a solo set, which included a passionate piano rendition of It’s Raining Men, the 1982 hit that he co-wrote with Paul Jabara.
When the band returned to the stage, Felicia Collins headed a moving tribute to the late Michael Jackson, which included Shake Your Body and I Want You Back. Collins amazing vocal talent brought a unique power and energy to the classic Jackson hits.
It was a tribute to the blues to close out the show because Shaffer said that Thunder Bay has proven time and again that the city is a real blues town.
It was a warm homecoming for Shaffer and the NYC Orchestra, with the audience standing to applaud the hometown legend at nearly every opportunity. Even a minor microphone glitch early on wasn’t enough to dampen the mood of the audience, nor even distract the industry veteran, who never missed a beat.
And for Shaffer, the return home has been just as rewarding.
“It’s been such a wonderful evening,” Shaffer said. “I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am so proud of my hometown.”
