110692 Jethro Tull, Ottawa, ON

On November 6th, 1992 Ian Anderson and his Jethro Tull hosted an artistic happening at Ottawa’s intimate and nondescript Congress Centre.  I had a great seat for a great show a short autumn stroll from my house; what could be finer?

I think the front section was supposed to be set up with tables like dinner theatre, but I’m guessing that swelling ticket sales kiboshed that concept in a hurry.  I don’t recall if the whole room had seats but I do know I watched this show from a folding chair about a dozen feet from the stage.

There was, however, a dinner table on stage, and the show began with a couple of actors sitting down to a fancy dinner.  Then Ian Anderson came onstage (was he playing the part of the waiter?) grandly smoking a cigarette.  Somehow the music began and it was fabulous.  Songs like Living In The Past and New Day Yesterday were interspersed with abstract theatre akin to a pay-what-you-can performance at your local college.

In short, it was great.  Comfortably watching and hearing the whole thing unfold from my fortunate perch just a few rows from the stage was a treat, and may just stand as my greatest Jethro Tull experience.

Funny postscript: Whenever I think of this show the separate experiences of two of my closest friends are always the first things that jump into my mind.  First is the story of Doug, who was furious because the seating assignments had been re-shuffled and he had gone from having a front table to a mediocre seat, which was exacerbated (in Doug’s opinion) by the fact the Ian Anderson had specifically asked that the audience not smoke (this was back when you could freely smoke at all concerts) and yet he himself was smoking onstage.  Doug unfortunately spent the whole show out in the lobby fuming and staring down the promoter at every opportunity.

Second is the story of JP, who was in a car on the 401 pulling into Toronto for a couple of nights when the DJ on Q107 mentioned that Jethro Tull would be in the city on the weekend.  It then occurred to JP that he had tickets to the Ottawa show that very night and they would go unused, sitting on his kitchen table 460 kilometres away.